Lucky
by KJay99
Summary: Pete and Myka get sent on a dangerous assignment while the rest of the team has to deal with things at the Warehouse. Complete!
1. Briefing

**Here is my latest offering. The story will be long, but worth it I hope.**

**Please offer me your honest opinion so that I might improve and offer you better and better stories!**

**I plan to update every Sunday and Wednesday.* (revised from Friday)**

**Of course, I don't own WH 13 nor its characters.**

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A manila folder slapped down in front of Pete. His fork stopped halfway up, his mouth hanging open in anticipation of the scrambled eggs that flopped back to his plate. Pete raised his gaze to see his seemingly always frazzled boss throw his bag onto the breakfast table and flop into an open chair. Artie's hair was wilder than usual and his eyes were red and tired and stood out in contrast to his slightly pale coloring that morning. Pete set down his fork. It was obvious to him that they were starting work early that day. From the look of his boss, Pete thought it was going to be a rough day.

"What's this?" Pete reached for the file.

"Case." growled Artie. He reached for the coffee pot and poured himself a cup. Pete casually opened the file wisely giving his boss a minute with his coffee.

Myka entered the kitchen drawn by the commotion of Artie entering the bed and breakfast. She settled into the chair on the other side of Pete looking over his shoulder.

"Sort of a thin file here Artie." Pete shot what he hoped was an entertaining but also concerning leer at his boss.

"Yeah I know." he huffed. "That's all I got so that's all you get." Artie took a gulp of hot energy. "Been at it all night after I got the ping." He said as a sort of apology. The old agent put his elbow on the table and pointed his coffee cup at the file in his agents' hands. "This guy is slippery." He spoke in fragments.

"What guy?" asked Myka. Pete pulled out the only photo in the file. It was a grainy surveillance picture. There was one man circled. He was turned away from the camera and looking over his shoulder. The fuzzy image captured the last third of his face. Pete frowned and handed the picture to Myka. No way they could make an id off of that. Myka looked at the picture and scowled too. They both frowned at Artie.

"I know! I know! It's the best I could do!" Artie wearily apologized. "That's as good as Claudia can get it. And _that_ is the only picture of him." His voice peaked as he stressed his words.

"What? No way. The only picture?" Pete said in disbelief.

Myka chimed in, "What about security feeds? Traffic light cameras?"

Artie rubbed his brow in frustration. He had already been over these options a hundred times already. They would know that, but they had to make sure. His agents were doing their jobs so he swallowed his annoyance. "There's nothing. Not on this guy. _This _guy doesn't get caught. He doesn't get his picture taken. People don't remember him. He's in and out like a ghost never leaving a trail to follow."

Pete flipped through the file. He knew that Myka was dying to get her hands on it so he flipped slowly. He showed her anything that he found interesting, making sure that she saw it from the chair next to him. "Artie, some of these cases go back years, 5 … 7 years!" Pete showed Myka the last case in the file. Pete raised his eye brows and looked at Myka to gauge her feelings. She furrowed her brow. It was unusual for them to get an unsolved case.

Artie nodded his grey curls. He was still and his red rimmed eyes were thoughtful. "He's had it awhile."

Myka beat Pete to the obvious question. "Had what?"

"Whatever it is that allows us to only have _this_!" he motioned to the fuzzy photo. "He was in Chicago for 3 days. There are one hundred thousand cameras in that city and _this_ is what we get!" Artie's frustration was apparent. He sighed and tried again.

"This guy, whoever he is, has been around for a while. He never leaves a trace. The feds have been hunting for him for years now but no one knows who he is." The old agent paused letting his brain quickly flash over the facts of the case. "Affiliated with several mob bosses across the country and foreign. I think I can connect him with at least 6 different international events." Artie sighed as he came to his point. "Every time he makes a move someone dies."

Myka was the first to get his point. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Pete just waited for his boss to tell him. Artie slowly and softly said, "I _think _he's an assassin _using_ an artifact." The weight of his words hung in the air.

Myka grew serious. Artie saw that she came to the same conclusion. Pete's eyebrows slowly crept up his face as he considered the possibilities of what Artie just said. Pete handed the file to Myka to let her concentrate on her strengths and him on his. He leaned towards Artie and repeated for clarification. "An assassin?" Artie nodded.

Pete leaned over Myka and referenced the file quickly. "Artie, uh.. How is … asphyxiation, by chocking on dinner; and this one died of a heart attack… how is that assassination?"

Artie sighed deeply. Pete's question reminded him how inexperienced his agents still were. He lifted his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes as he debated how best to describe what he suspected might be effects of an artifact while still communicating that it was still just his best guess. "That is how this guy operates... and- and why he is still in business. This guy, whoever he is, he shows up and someone dies." He said seriously. "It never looks like a murder. The target will have a heart attack … or fall down the stairs, or choke on dinner, whatever—" he waved his hands, "but they do die and no one suspects a thing."

Pete decided to play along. "Ok- then what would do this?" Artie had been beating his brain all night asking the same question. He shook his head and opened his mouth but Pete continued talking. "What? A- a invisible ring? Ooh- what about that buck skin coat? Lets you walk through walls right?" He looked to his partner who offered him an encouraging look, but Artie shook his head.

"No no, you guys bagged that a while ago now." He answered Pete's next question before he answered it. "It's still in the warehouse. I check it this morning." Pete grimaced. He liked the coat idea.

"Artie…" Myka finally spoke up. Artie could see her that she was thinking hard in the way that her head tilted to the left. "Why the sudden hunt? I mean if he is just a gun for mobsters, why don't we keep collecting information until we have a solid lead on him?" she looked at him thoughtfully and asked. "Why the goose chase?"

The old agent rubbed his hand over his beard and pointedly said, "He killed a United Nations diplomat."

The partners shot each other a look and sat up straighter. They both knew that international political assassins were another thing entirely. Artie continued slowly, "Last week. From Nigeria. In his hotel room. With a full security team on duty. In New York." All three agents knew how serious news like that was. Artie let the new information settle in.

"Listen," Artie signed wearily. "I don't know what he has. But this guy is dangerous. He's top notch. Knows what he's doing. He's had whatever artifact for a long, _long_ time and he knows how to use it." He looked straight at both of his agents. "Be careful on this one."

Pete looked at Myka. They both had the same stoic look of determination. Pete knew they would get this guy. He knew they had to.

Artie stood and dug into his bag as Leena came into the kitchen. Leena evaluated the agents. She stared making another round of breakfast for Artie.

The graying boss pulled out the durational spectrometer from his bag and set it on the table. Pete grabbed at it. "Neat! I'd love to use this in the field!"

Artie barked, "Identification purposes only! This guy is slippery. There's been multiple reports of people only seeing his back as he ran away, or half of his face." He waved at the blurry picture on the table. "If you can find where this guy is, or get a glimpse of him…"

"Then we can use this to see his whole face!" Myka finished his thought for him. Artie lowered his shoulders and nodded with a half smirk at her quickness. Myka tilted her head a bit in thought. "Artie. If we can get close enough to this guy. If we use the spectrometer to get a full face shot…. Can we get a picture of him?"

"No. Unfortunately the spectrometer…. " he really didn't have the energy for a lecture about residual essence versus physical image. He waved his hands. "It's complicated. But no. You'll just have to remember what he looks like."

Artie's stomach asserted its self at the smell of breakfast. He forced his attention back to finish the briefing before he starved, or worse, fell asleep. "Ok! Last location was New York on the 6th. I traced him to somewhere in Iowa." He handed the agents their plane tickets.

Pete flinched. "Iowa? Are there a lot of diplomats and mobsters in Iowa Artie?"

"No… but this guy doesn't stay off the radar by hanging out in big cities. I suspect that he uses the small towns of America to live in until something else comes up for him. He'll blend in."

Myka glanced at her ticket and looked like she was ready to walk out the door already. She and Pete exchanged one of their looks where they could tell what the other was thinking. Artie watched them and waited. He saw their shared determination and smiled inwardly at their partnership. Neither had anymore questions so he shooed them away to pack with a "Keep in contact!" They thundered up the stairs.

The senior agent sat heavily into his chair. Artie stared at his coffee cup, reviewing the briefing in his mind. He wanted to make sure that there wasn't something important that he missed telling them. He had told them every detail that he wanted to and even a few suspicions that he had on this one. Anything else that they needed he would simply have to find. He felt like he started a timer by setting Pete and Myka on the assassin's trail. Artie wished he knew how much time was on that timer.


	2. Bank

**Friday already?**

**Thanks for the reviews. I really do read them and take them to heart- as I belive that you will realize before this story is over. I hope to update more frequently in the near future.**

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Artie threw his red Jaguar into park in front of the Univille Bank. He jumped out and started shuffling the papers in his hands while holding his ever present bag as he hurriedly marched to the front door of the bank. He honestly didn't understand why this paper work couldn't be done over the phone. He was trying to help Claudia set her life up as somewhat normal, which in this case means getting a normal bank account, but with her past records, the back was less than willing. It wasn't enough for them that Artie vouched for her, they had insisted on Artie coming in person to sign documents to open the account. So here he was, taking time out of his day to appease people who can't see the world beyond their counter. At least he felt better after catching a few hours of sleep. If he hurried, he could be back before Pete and Myka landed.

The graying agent was shuffling the papers trying to get them into some sort of order, habit forcing his hand to not let go of his black bag as he juggled his load. He just hoped that he brought all the forms that he needed. He hesitated just before the doors to the bank and noticed a page that he hadn't signed yet. _For all the— _

**BANG BANG**

Artie looked up in alarm. G_unshots._

Suddenly the bank doors flew open. A darkly dressed man ran out and crashed headlong into Artie. As the two bodies crashed to the ground, Artie used his lower center of gravity and pulled the man into him and twisted. The two men fell heavily to the ground with the dark man being spun to land flat on his back and crushed by the heavy agent on top of him.

Before he knew what was happening Artie was on the ground on top of the darkly dressed man. He heard the wind being driven from the man's lungs as he flattened him on the cement outside the bank. The man tried to gulp air, but none would enter. That was when Artie saw that he was wearing a mask. Artie looked at the man's right hand and saw it gripping a gun. He instinctively knocked the gun out of the man's hand with his hand that still clutched the bank papers.

The confused agent rolled off of the robber who was still trying to gulp air and sat up. He saw a gun. The whole world slowed to a crawl as Artie focused on the barrel pointed at his head. A second masked man looked straight into Artie's eyes from behind a mask. His thumb reached back to pull back the hammer.

As soon he saw the finger move, Artie swung his black bag at the gun and leaned to the right, moving his head out of the line of fire from the barrel. The gun went off as the bag hit it. Artie felt the explosion from the gun as it went off inches from his head.

The agent went on self defense auto pilot. He got his feet underneath him and leapt forward at the man's legs. Artie pushed the robber back against the glass entrance of the bank, pinning him in the corner. He reached for the gun but the man was taller than Artie so he could only grab the man's wrist. The man struggled, but Artie doggedly kept him pinned in the corner of the entrance way.

Suddenly Artie was aware of someone else at his right. A bank guard grabbed the robbers' gun from the hand that Artie kept immobilized. Artie looked at the guard in surprise. He saw the guard's lips moving but couldn't make out what he was saying. The guard helped Artie hold the robber and handed the gun to his partner who had just handcuffed the man on the ground. The guard cuffed the robber's hand. Artie saw the guard's lips move again. He didn't understand until the second guard put his hands on Artie's shoulders and pulled him away from the robber to allow the man to be handcuffed.

Artie stepped back dazed. A few seconds ago it was a normal day, now two bank robbers laid at his feet. Adrenalin was still pumping in the agent as he took in the situation. It all happened in a split second. He looked at the guard who smiled and said something that he didn't hear. Then Artie looked through the glass doors of the bank. Half a dozen people were watching him with shocked looks on their faces.

Artie took a step backwards as his brain started spinning with consequences. Then he sprung forward, grabbed his bag and scampered to his car. He broke all speed records in getting his keys out and throwing the car into gear. The jaguar's wheels peeled out as he sped away from the bank.


	3. Cafe

**It appears that most people visit this site on Sunday, so from now on I shall release the new chapters on Sundays.**

**I'll post up a chapter today in order to not have anyone wait more than 7 days, and hopefully avoid pitchforks and torches.**

**Thanks for the reviews! 'Awesome sauce' eh? (chuckle)**

**Oh- I agree Flustrator. Artie doesn't get enough action. Good thing that we can correct that oversite here right? :)**

**LucDarling- thanks. I have corrected that. Nice catch!**

**Kendralynora, and InuGhost2.0 thanks! Yeah- leave it to Artie to have bank robbers flat out run into him! lol...**

**Hope that you enjoy this latest offering. Please keep the reviews coming. The story is still building, so please stay tuned! I promise more brain power, artifact usage, character interaction and cliff hangers! **

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Pete and Myka were sitting at a café waiting for something to happen. Their table was tucked away in a secluded corner, but offered a good view of the main street through the front window.

Myka flipped through the file for the twentieth time. There was nothing there for them to go on.

Usually Artie gave them some solid directions when he sent them out on a case along the lines of "Go there," "Get that," or "Talk to him." This pathetically thin case file held no clues as to where the assassin was and very little idea as to who the man even was—if it was even a man. Myka grabbed the fuzzy photo and stared at it. The picture was very grainy but from the build of the half shoulder and the third of a head that she could see Myka could tell that it was probably a man. _Could be a muscular woman with a short hair cut…_ Myka thought to herself. Then she huffed. She was trying too hard to find clues where there weren't any, which was more dangerous than not finding anything at all. Then she slapped the picture and folder on the table in frustration. She was glad that she literally asked Artie why they were going on a wild goose chase, because that was exactly what she felt like they were on.

Pete jumped a little when Myka slammed the file down. She got the impression that he forced the jump for her benefit. The brunette huffed and closed the file. She turned on her partner. "How are we suppose to find this guy? I mean there's nothing in here!" She flung the folder at Pete.

"We'll find him." Pete said with easy confidence.

"Wha- Pete there's nothing here!" she flipped the edge of the thin file for emphasis. "How are we suppose to find him, let alone catch him and neutralize whatever artifact he may or may not have?" she huffed with her neck straining.

Pete leaned forward and spoke softly. "This assassin killed a United Nations diplomat…." He led his partner into his thoughts. She followed him and nodded. "Yeah?"

"In New York…." Pete continued. Myka nodded, unsure where her partner was heading.

He looked at her and said, "Here… in the US," jamming his finger into the table. Myka picked up on his emotion and started nodding with him.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Nu uh. No way. Not here."

Myka was nodding along with her partner now and buying into his enthusiasm. "Yeah. Yeah!" she said. She stood up, wanting to do something physically to enforce the emotion.

"Yeah!" Pete stood with her knowing that he had Myka revved up and ready to work. He knew that now was the time to get their case moving. "So… How we going to do it?"

She went from nodding to a blank stare. "Uh… well…" the lanky agent cocked her head at Pete and twisted her neck as she groped for a response. "Um. You – ah- will do what you do. And- I… I will do what I do."

Pete thought through what she said. "Ah. What um… what do I do?"

"You do… you know…" Myka's voice went high as she threw her hand out to him. "You're… feelings.. your… your vibes!"

Pete nodded again several times. "Right… feelings. Vibes…. " The agent drew in a breath as he considered counting on something he had no control over. "But… then uh… what do you do?"

Myka opened her mouth until she drew out a noise from her throat. "Uhhh… Well… investigate. You know…"

Pete picked up where she left off. "Right… book stuff."

She smirked at him letting her off of the hook. "Right."

There was a pause as the partners reconsidered exactly where they were in the case. Pete stuck his thumbs inside of his belt and drew his chest up. Myka bit her lip and looked to the side. They both had the same thought. _This is going to be tough._

"Ok. OK. No. Wait." Myka opened the file and grabbed the grainy photo. "Does that look like a woman to you?"

"What?" Pete drew back and threw his partner the '_crazy'_ look.

"Yeah. Ok. Never mind." Myka hastily tucked the picture back into the file.

"Ok. What do we know?" Pete tried to review and get Myka's brain engaged because he knew that was the only way that they were going to get anywhere on this case.

"Not much."

"Ok…" Pete was grasping at straws but he knew that he had to keep Myka talking and using her brain. "What **don't** we know?" he said because he couldn't think of anything else. To his surprise Myka answered him.

"A lot! We don't know who he is, or where he's from. Where he is right now… what artifact he has…"

"Wait. From- where he's from." Pete grabbed at the folder.

"Yeah that's what we don't know."

Pete flipped to the oldest case in the folder. "Here. His first case was in… Albuquerque." He paused and said, "Maybe he's from New Mexico?"

Myka scowled a bit at him and shuffled the papers to get to the oldest case. _No way it's that easy,_ she thought. She leaned on the table as she referenced the file.

Pete moved around beside his partner and glanced down at the file over Myka's shoulder. "He looks like my Aunt."

"What?"

Pete reached down and pointed to the grainy picture that was buried under the folder leaving only the man's lower half of his face exposed. "He has her nose… and jaw." Pete looked at Myka said, "She wasn't a handsome woman." and cringed a little.

Myka stared at the man's lower features with the paper blocking his eyes. She saw what Pete was pointing at. Without the eye to distract her Myka could see boxy pixels that could be trying to show a prominent nose. Paired with the strong jaw, the two features together seemed to suggest eastern European descent.

"Where is your Aunt from?"

"Toledo." Pete replied. He was also staring at the half blocked photograph. "But she was born in Warsaw."

Myka looked at Pete who looked back at her. He reached down and slowly moved the paper covering the picture and revealed the single eye of the man. The dark eye still distracted, but otherwise, the two agents saw features that could be distinctly of Polish descent.

Myka was the first to speak. "It's not a lot to go on."

"Yeah I hate to follow a lead based on my Aunt Lena." Pete agreed. "Still, what else have we got?"

"Not much." Myka sighed. Pete saw her expression change from thoughtful to surprised right before she scooted around the table. He didn't get a vibe, so he wasn't too alarmed when she walked briskly across the back of the café. She returned with a colorful flier in her hand and an incredulous look.

"What's that?" Pete asked.

In response Myka flipped the flier around for him to read. "Polish Festival?" He looked at Myka in disbelief.

Myka smirked as if she didn't believe it either. She turned the flier around and looked at it. "When is it?" Pete asked.

"Right now. Started yesterday!" Myka couldn't stop her excitement. It was all fitting into place a little too easy.

Pete read her eyes. "You think?"

"Yeah! Yeah I do…" she replied.

"Ok! Let's go." As they gathered their stuff he commented. "Maybe our luck is changing!"


	4. Office

**I hope that I will be forgiven for my inconsistancies.**

**Seeing as how it is a holiday- I thought that I would release another chapter- seeing as how I had it ready.**

**To still keep true to my word, I will release another chapter on Sunday as well. There will be a few chapters of Warehouse activity before we can jump back to Pete and Myke in the field. Trust me, they will be fine until we catch up with them again. There's just a lot going on at the Warehouse that I have to fill you in on. **

**Thanks to all the reviewers again. Jahmen! Great to see you here! Thanks for the kind words Indie Flash and Haleigh. Always nice to hear from you as well SunKrux.**

**Now on with the story.  
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In Artie's office Claudia picked up a piece of electronic equipment. She analyzed the connections attached to her computer and frowned. Her computer didn't register the new equipment. She wiggled the connection to the ancient projector and turned her head to watch her screen. After a few seconds of maneuvering she stood and looked at the imager. The techie sized up the equipment and leaned in close to it again. "Last chance" she said to it while she wiggled the connection again to no avail.

"Oh come on!" she reinforced her frustration with a hard slap to the old box. The computer screen jumped to life to Claudia's delight. "Oh!" She checked to see the device registering on the computer screen. "Thank you!" She said.

She jumped when she heard the front door slam open. She scrambled to hide the device behind a stack of folders before Artie could yell at her for fiddling with it. She stuck her head out but didn't see her boss. "Artie?" She didn't get an answer.

Claudia slowly walked into the front part of the office. "Artie?"

She found her boss working at his computer. "Hey! You're back already! Did you get the account opened?" She waited three full seconds. "Artie?" He didn't respond, but instead he was working at his computer with an amazing intensity and speed. Claudia cocked her head to the side and walked up behind him, noticing that his hair was even more wild than usual. Peeking over him she spied that he was searching cell phone signals from Univille.

Artie caught a glimpse of Claudia's close face in the reflective surface of the monitor. He whipped his head around to see Claudia's face two inches from his. He jumped straight up with a gasp. Grabbing at his chest he said, "Claudia" and half closed his eyes to try to stop his heart from jumping out of his chest.

"Hey. Whatcha doing?" The teenager frowned when she didn't get an answer again. She started wondering if he was ignoring her- and if he was, why. Her thoughts whirred about what he was keeping from her; him one of the few people that she trusted. Her heart rate picked up as she considered if he was mad at her, or if she had betrayed his trust in some way that she wasn't aware. To stop her mind from raced through all kinds of horrible scenarios she needed to know what was going on.

"_Artie!_" she nearly screamed making him jump again.

"What?" he barked, but he looked at her finally.

"I said, '_What_ is going on?'" she over emphasized.

"Oh. Uhm." He nervously got up and rapidly ran across the office running his hand through his hair and doing ten motions at once. Claudia recognized his body language as uber serious stuff happening. She tensed in an effort to prepare for whatever he was about to lay on her.

"I need you to run scans for data being sent from cell phones from Univille." He said louder than necessary.

Claudia eyed her boss warily, not satisfied with his answer. "Okaay." Artie glanced at her then started digging in a filing cabinet drawer.

Claudia turned to her computer to have it run in sync with her boss's. "What exactly am I looking for?" she called over to Artie. She launched the software that she designed for cell phone tracking. When she still didn't get a response from him she shot a look of pure annoyance over her shoulder.

She saw Artie staring at a corner of the office with a strangely absent look on his face. His hand was holding the left side of his head. Alarm leapt up in Claudia. She dropped her mouse and quickly walked toward her boss. "Artie!" he glanced at her over his glasses. "Are you ok?" She eyed him carefully.

The graying agent shot her a reassuring smile. "Yeah. I'm fine." He quickly lowered his hand. "You know what?" He grabbed a paper from his desk and started scribbling. "What I really need you to do right now is check on these and…" he grabbed a box containing an artifact that Claudia had been meaning to reshelf for a week now, "reshelf this." He forced the artifact and paper into the wary teenager's hands.

Claudia looked at the sections of the warehouse listed and huffed. He gave her far away sections what would take her a while to get to. She shot him a look that teenagers are universally capable of producing that said '_Are you kidding me?' _She asked him with sincerity, "You sure you're ok?"

Artie smiled. "Don't worry about me." He grabbed her shoulders and physically turned her around and escorted her to the door.

On the way out, Claudia dug her heels in. She leaned over and grabber her Farnsworth from her desk. The redhead grabbed the door handle and turned to face Artie. She used her two fingers to point to her eyes and then his in an "I'll be watching you" motion. She waved her Farnsworth at him and slipped out the door.

Artie smirked at the girl's antics. Then he blinked and released a deep sigh. Concern crept over his face. He turned and picked up the rotary style black office phone, waited five seconds then said "I need you." He hung up without waiting for a response.


	5. Leena

**SunKrux and InuGhost, you'll just have to see what happens!**

**Those changes are made. Thanks for the correction!**

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Leena started drawing items out of her first aid bag. Fortunately she hadn't had to use it in a while but Artie's phone call had her bring it out again. She was alarmed at how off center and bruised Artie's aura was. She sat him down as soon as she was able to get him to sit.

She gathered something happened at the bank, she assumed in Univille. What she did hear was "gun" and "went off". She figured out the rest on her own, hushing Artie and his half sense ramblings. He eventually calmed down for her and was still as Leena ran a general diagnostic on the aged agent. In the years of him lacking a partner, this was a familiar situation but one that he still didn't enjoy in the least. He nervously gritted his teeth as she looked at both of his eyes with a light. Leena pressed her lips at what she saw. She pressed Artie's shoulder down to make sure he knew to stay seated before she went to the sink under the loft. She filled a bowl half way with water and set it on the table by the jumpy agent.

She made sure that he was looking at her before she pointed at his left eye and clearly said "Rinse."

Artie removed his glasses and leaned over the bowl to wash out his eyes. Leena gathered a towel and touched his shoulder after a few moments, handing it to him.

Leena opened a new instrument and snapped on a small black funnel onto it's viewing section. Glancing up, she saw Claudia come into the office. Claudia stopped dead when she saw Leena standing over Artie. The clairvoyant felt pity for the girl when she saw the concern creep over her face and her aura drop from cheery pink to the icy grey-blue color of fear. Leena gave Claudia a steadying look and bent over Artie to examine his ear.

After a moment, during which Claudia forgot to breath, Leena straightened up. Artie looked up at her hopefully. Leena turned and deposited her scope in her bag. She came back with a note pad of paper and started to write. Something caught Claudia's eye on Artie's bag on the table. There was something shiny where there shouldn't be. She eyed Leena while she quietly stepped to the bag. The teen plucked a small bullet from the side of the bag where it was stuck. Claudia's eyes went wide. Just then Leena handed the paper to Artie who read it and nodded. Leena shrugged.

Claudia couldn't stand it any longer. "Ok, ok! WHAT is going on?" She marched up to them.

Artie did a double take when he saw Claudia moving behind him. He jumped up to face her as she stomped up to him. He held his hands up "Claudia…"

The teen wasn't going to listen to him avoid her anymore. "No Artie! What the _hell _is going on? _Tell me."_ She stood determined in front of him. He could see that she was nearing panic in her concern. He realized that she must have been behind him for a few minutes and that Leena must have known she was there. He glanced over his shoulder at Leena and let his anger flare up briefly, knowing that she would see the sudden change in his aura. He got a wave of satisfaction when he saw her breath in in alarm, then he let it go knowing that he made his point.

"**Tell me!**" Claudia demanded again so loudly that Leena jumped. Artie caved.

"Ok, ok, listen kiddo." He took Claudia's arm and she let him lead her to the couch. He sat down next to her. "There was a robbery at the bank this morning." He felt her tense even more, if that was possible. He glanced at Leena. Artie read Leena's concern on her face and knew that Claudia's aura must be wrecked. Claudia looked down and held out her hand. It had the bullet in it. Artie sighed. _No wonder she freaking out, _he thought. He said, "They got them. I'm ok."

Claudia lost it. "Oh! _Are you Artie_?" She jumped up leaving him confused at her reaction. She grabbed the paper from the table where he set it down and read it. "Damage to ear drum, probably ruptured." She stood facing Artie with all of her force. "_Don't lie to me_."

Artie hesitated under the raw emotion of her attack. "I-I'm not lying." He knew that she was probably used to being lied to in her past, but he thought that she was beyond that. It saddened him to see that she still was so easily suspicious. He rubbed his hands over his face gathering himself and stood. Taking the note from her to set it down he said, "I—I'll work through this. This should be temporary."

"What 'This'?" Claudia stopped yelling as she remembered his earlier odd behavior. He face went blank as she started connecting the dots. Then she looked at him again and said softly, "Can you even hear me?"

Artie grimaced and held up two fingers held an inch apart. He said "A little."

"A _little_?"

"Well a lot when you shriek like that."


	6. Bell's Audio Box

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**Sunday again. **

**Ok one more scene from the Warehouse gang, then we'll catch up to Pete and Myka in the field.**

Again thanks for the reviews guys! I hope that everyone enjoys and it's not too bogged down. More story progress to come!

5 points if you get my joke. ;)

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Artie tried to clear his ears yet again. His right ear felt like it was full of water. His left was still dead to everything but the loudest of noises. It was like being in a fish tank. The graying agent pressed his palms to his ears in an effort to relieve the stuffed feeling. Then he balled his fists in annoyance and tugged on his brown over shirt to stop his hands from touching his ears.

Sighing, Artie forced his hands onto his computer. He couldn't have survived the years alone in the warehouse without forced discipline. He used that trait to make himself ignore the discomfort and focus on the case. Minimizing a warehouse monitoring function, he brought up the Iowa Department of Justice system. He remembered a prior search that should be completed, but he hadn't yet received a result. He looked at his other monitor and saw that the system was waiting for his input. The old man sighed heavily. The search was complete; he just hadn't heard the tone alerting him. He wondered how much time he wasted because he allowed his system to be idle. In frustration Artie slammed his hand on the "New Search" button a little too hard. He shook it out to help dissipate the sting.

A red shape appeared at the edge of Artie's vision. Claudia bent into his sight before asking. "Everything ok?"

"Fine." Artie grunted out automatically. Not even he believed the statement.

The girl busied herself with a contraption in her hands. Watching Artie struggle affected her in some weird way. Like a little piece inside of her hurt along with him. It was a piece that she didn't even know existed before coming to the Warehouse so now she had no idea what to do about it.

"What?" She looked up to see that Artie was watching her.

"Um." Claudia took a breath and focused on the present. She still didn't know how she was going to get him to agree to her idea. She fiddled with her newly assembled invention. Finally, she made up her mind. She drew in a breath to try to get the idea out before he could interrupt her.

"Ok." She held up one hand to ward off his future arguments. "There's this box, and it can convert audio into vibrations that your inner ear can hear and-" she stopped short when Artie's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the mess of wires in her hands. "It won't be perfect, but it should give you basic sounds" she finished quickly.

"_Should?_"

"Yeah. It- look." She held up a couple of squares the size of cigarettes boxes with wires attaching them to a small microphone.

"What is _that_?"

"It's a battery pack. See?" She held it up and stepped towards Artie who jumped back in his chair in alarm.

"Get- get that… get away from me!" he stammered and gestured to the wires and then the girl.

"Oh! Don't be a baby!" she rounded the desk towards her skiddish boss.

"Don't you have inventory to do?" he threatened her.

"What? No.. you said it can wait..." then she realized he was trying to distract her. "Common, it's not that bad." she glanced at the slightly vibrating box in her hand. "Well, it _shouldn't_ be that bad." she murmured.

"There's that '_should_' again!"

"Well, technically it... Oh just let me try it out!"

"What! No!" Artie's eyes went wide.

Claudia ignored his protests and rounded the desk. Artie stuttered and started rolling backwards. She was confused for a second until she realized that he was retreating by rolling his chair backwards with his feet. "Hey! No no! Take it easy…" She chased him halfway across the room until the wheels caught on a fold in the rug.

"Claudia…" Artie cowered in his chair from the teenager and whatever contraption she was hunting him down with. He feebly held up one hand and gulped when he saw the determination in her.

Claudia held up her hands filled with wires as if to hold him in place and crept forward like she was hunting a small animal.

"Easy….eeeasy…" When she got within arm's reach Claudia quickly scooted forward to his side, shoved his hand to the side and slapped the old box to his chest.

"Ow! Claudia!"

He stopped and blinked. The teenager poked her head around to look at his face. "Does it work?"

Artie raised his brown eyes to meet hers. A toothy grin slowly spread over her face. "It works…. Doesn't it?"

"I…" Artie closed his open mouth and raised his bushy eyebrows in disbelief. "Yes."

Claudia's grin was released in full force. "Rock." She threw two fingers in the air in celebration.

"How… What is this?" Artie started tracking the wires from the box to the microphone in her hands.

"_That_ is Alexander Graham Bell's Audio Box." Artie drew back slightly in concern and pulled the box off of his chest where she was holding it to examine it. The audio feedback that he felt deep in his left side of his skull stopped. He looked at Claudia and saw that her lips were moving.

Claudia huffed in annoyance. She pulled the box from his curious hands. Lifting the top of his outer shirt she slipped the box and battery into the small pocket on his undershirt. She pressed it into his chest, straightening his button down shirt back into place. "Like I was saying…" Artie flinched slightly at the return of the throbbing up his neck and jaw. "Bell figured out harmonics to the point where he could produce them at the precise vibration for his body. I had to modify it, of course. I mean, he fine tuned it for the men in his family, which you clearly are not, so I had to up the audio input and power." Claudia held up the small microphone for show. She smiled in her accomplishment and shrugged. "I thought that by by-passing the ear drum, we could still get some basic noise pumped in."

Artie was impressed in spite of himself. "But… How…" His curiosity won him over and he tentatively reached out for the 3 inch microphone. His fingers brushed over the mic in the exchange and a burst of white noise made him jerk away from the noise behind his ear.

"Yeah. Be careful with this." She carefully handed him the mic to hold. The junior agent grabbed the back of the chair and wheeled her boss over to his desk. "The Audio Box was made for a man's body. The whole Bell family had progressive deafness, but Alexander figured out how to use the box to get the men to hear. He never did figure it out for a woman's body though…" She took the mic from him and set it next to his computer. "Listen…" She turned back to Artie who was turning around the room to see what the microphone would pick up. "Alma!" Claudia yelled and stomped her foot twice hard on the floor. Artie looked at her.

"Its non directional. One microphone."

"Ah! Of course." He was getting used to the disturbing vibration culminating behind his ear. "Couldn't get it in stereo?" Artie quipped dryly.

"Y-yes. But I can't transmit it in stereo… I thought…your good ear…." Claudia stuttered until she saw the humor in her boss's eyes. She huffed and slapped his shoulder, which he flinched and grabbed in play. "Can we get back to work now?" The techie shook her head and stomped over to her desk while Artie chuckled; thrilled that he had some form of hearing. Claudia was still shaking her head as she fell into her seat at her computer. She glanced over her shoulder when Artie started snapping his fingers at various distances from the microphone testing his new toy. She shook her head yet again and laughed at his prior tentative behavior. "Such a baby…."

"Hey! I heard that!"

Claudia rolled her eyes and went to the back room to continue her electrical contraption project.

Artie tapped the desk and felt the vibrations get picked up and transmitted to his skull. It was disturbing and not really hearing as he would call it, but at least he would be notified if there was noise in the room, unlike before. Claudia's speech wasn't understandable, but now he would at least know if she was talking so that he could look her and read her lips. Between that and the extra body language that she started using for his benefit, he thought that communication would be possible.

The agent in him certainly didn't like using the artifacts, but perhaps in this case the risk might be worth the reward. He glanced at the box in his pocket thoughtfully. He wondered how Claudia had time to put this together while working on the assassin case. His eyes swept across the multitude of programs that he had running in his office, evaluating their status. He grabbed a records book to start the C check on the Warehouse when he got a ping from one of his programs. Someone in Univille was sending a picture message. He intercepted the signal and downloaded a picture of him and the robber fighting over the gun. Artie's eyes went wide. He sat down in front of his computer to capture the picture and track it back to the user's cell phone. The Warehouse would have to wait.


	7. Festival

**Ok folks.**

**I know that this story is fairly involved and releasing the story in chapters so far apart makes it difficult for a reader to keep into the fold of the story. I have been considering releasing chapters faster and after speaking with a few of you reader, I have been convinced. **

**I will start releasing the chapters as before, every Wednesday and Saturday.**

**I really do listen to you guys! :) What do you'all think about that idea? **

* * *

The streets of the small town's main road were busy with booths that lined the sidewalks. Myka thought that half of the small town must be there as she strolled down the main street. Performers in colorful costumes danced with a band on a small stage in the main square. Colorful tented booths sold everything from local crafts, to produce and various ethnic foods that threw their spicy scents into the air. The quick band music mixed with crowd noise and was punctuated by sharp calls from the street vendors.

The neatly dressed brunette kept scanning the crowd looking for the one eye and third of a face in the picture that they had in their file. The agent kept her face neutral, but anyone who bothered to look could tell that she was tense as she scanned the crowd. Frustration was growing in her again as she realized that nearly any man in the crowd could be their assassin. She felt like he could be right in front of her and she wouldn't be able to recognize him.

Pete suddenly was by her side. "Get anything?" she asked him.

"Nah, not really. Apparently there are lots of new people in the area this time of year. Hunting season starts next week." He said as he fell into stride beside her. "Any luck with the hotels?"

"No" she said curtly. Myka stopped short and Pete had to double back to see what her problem was. Myka looked at the crowd then at Pete and said, "This is useless."

Pete took a breath. He immediately knew what she was talking about and he knew that she was right. Even if the assassin was here, in the immediate area, the chances were that they wouldn't be able to recognize him. It was annoying him and he could see that the situation was frustrating to his partner as well. He tried to formulate a positive response that wouldn't sound too ridiculous in the current circumstances but came up empty. Pete was just opening him mouth to try to say something encouraging when he was saved by a buzzing.

Pete reached for the pocket of his jacket to try to muffle the annoying buzzer. Myka quickly stuck her hand out and held back the crowd to let Pete slip down a side alley between the Main Street stores.

The agent ducked around the corner behind the store down the alley. He glanced around before finally opening up the Farnsworth.

"What took so long? You two alright?" Artie's voice demanded rather loudly.

"Yeah Artie. Just a little crowded over here." Pete double checked down the alley to make sure that he wouldn't be overheard.

Artie read his agents lips and repeated, "What? 'Crowded'? Where are you?"

"A festival. Uh- we're just working off of a hunch right now." He inwardly sighed at how badly their investigation was going. Just then Myka caught up with him. "We could really use some help finding this guy. You got anything for us?"

Artie relaxed a little bit seeing Myka on the screen. He stashed his questions that he was going to ask about her whereabouts and switched to answer Pete's question. "Yeah…. Well sort of." The old agent's face twitched in a small cringed right before he was replaced in the little screen by Claudia.

She didn't wait but launched right into her presentation. "Yeah. Ok. So- I took all of the old surveillance footage and pictures from the old crime scenes," they saw her adjusting an ancient looking projector box with her free hand as she spoke. "scene photos, basically everything… and compared them to each other and with the known pic. I scanned them all into a database and then I compared like features and collapsed the data to minimize redundancy." She spouted technical talk until she saw the doubtful looks on the faces on the other end of the Farnsworth.

"Basically. I um…" She tried to paraphrase what she wanted to say for their sakes. "I ended up with an image that I downloaded into the um… projector." She looked to Artie for guidance. Her boss just looked at her and swept his hand out palm up in a "just get on with it" motion.

The techie followed his advice and just got to the point. "Well it isn't complete, but here." She flipped the projector on. A beam of light shone through the giant magnifying glass and a life sized image of a man appeared right in front of a skeptical Artie. Claudia turned the Farnsworth around to show the agents the collaged image of the man.

Little squeaks of surprise slipped from Pete and Myka. Myka pushed her head in front of Pete's in the little screen. "Claudia—that's the assassin?"

The red head smirked and took in the accolades that justified her hard work. Even Artie raised his eyebrows in appreciation at the shimmering man before him. She gave everyone a second to appreciate the hologram then shook herself. "It's not complete of course." Claudia motioned to the face that had a digital smear running down the middle third. "but I have basic dimensions for you." Artie got up while she was talking and analyzed her creation close up.

"5'7" 170 pounds. White male, brown/black hair. Anywhere from 25-45 years old. Sorry- I don't' have specific information and the stuff that I do have is subject to error…" she wanted to tell them about all of the errors involved with picking and choosing what information to use. She remembered Artie's warning and her mind could leap to all of the problems that could arise from them thinking that her hologram was a perfect representation. "This is just a representation- the guy could be anywhere from 5' 5" to 5'8", I had to fill in a few holes on the data. It's not perfect—"

"Claudia it's great!" Pete replied. He only understood about a third of what Claudia said in the past minute. He just knew that she had a picture of the assassin!

Myka tilted her head to try to get perspective on the hologram. "Can you back up the Farnsworth? Give us an idea of his size?" Claudia backed up set the Farnsworth on the table in front of the projector aiming at the hologram and Artie standing by it. She manned the projectors dual rotating balls that rotated and sized the hologram.

"Can you see this slouch?" Artie tiled his head as he followed the man's shoulders with his hands

Pete and Myka squinted at the tiny grey screen. "Yeah. Artie what is that? What is that?" Myka asked her boss then her partner in rapid succession. Pete shrugged.

Claudia snapped her fingers at Artie. "Hey Beethoven!_"_ He quickly turned to look over his shoulder at her. "What's up with the slouch?'" Claudia clearly pronounced.

Artie turned back to the hologram and rubbed his beard in thought. "Some sort of…" he tilted his head the other way and said, "imbalance. Pretty slight…" his voice trailed off in thought. "Looks like his left shoulder is higher than his right. Could be childhood scoliosis… or something…"

Pete looked at Myka. "Where's the file?" She shot him a questioning look and dug into her bag to pull out the case file. She handed it to Pete who gave her the Farnsworth and drew out the photo of the man. The man's left shoulder was close to his chin. Pete assumed that was because the man was looking over his left shoulder, but with the new information, he guessed that wasn't the only reason why. Pete pressed his lips and looked at Myka. He saw that she recognized the same high left shoulder.

"Claudia, can you give us a good view of his face?" Pete asked.

Claudia crinkled her nose and walked to the front of the hologram. "Well, it's not very good, there just wasn't any data to go on, I doubled the one image that we have of his face to get this…" She pointed the Farnsworth at the fuzzy and incomplete face. She could practically hear Pete and Myka's disappointment. Suddenly her rush of excitement at her creation left her. Artie was right with what he said before- this was a stick figure based on guesses.

Myka was first to speak. "Claudia its great!" She thought that it was certainly more information then they had a few minutes ago. "Anything else?"

Claudia straightened up. "Not really. The guy wears anything from blue jeans to pin striped suits. One picture he was in flip flops, that's actually how I got his height- from his feet…." Claudia stopped herself from babbling. "Anyways!" she rolled her eyes at herself. She was getting as bad as Artie. "This is the best that I can come up with until you guys get me more information."

"Ok Claudia thanks." Pete said and closed the Farnsworth. He and Myka turned and headed back into the crowd.


	8. Spotted!

**First Wednesday release. **

* * *

The agent kept her frustration in check and kept her eyes moving over the crowd. She was just wondering what was taking her partner so long when he popped through the crowd to land beside her.

"What took you so long?" she said without looking at him.

Pete juggled a foot long sandwich and a bag as he swallowed. "Had to get some kielbasa."

"What is that?" she looked at the spicy looking hot dog that he gripped.

"A sausage hot dog apparently." He shrugged and took another massive bite. "Pretty good!" he said with his mouth full much to his partners disgust. "Myka you have to try this pierogi thing." He tried to give her a dumpling from his bag that he purchased.

She knew better than to berate him for excusing himself to eat. Pete often gave into stuffing his stomach whenever possible. She found it was better to just let him eat then get him back on track as soon as possible, so she just huffed away the offer of the dumpling looking pastry.

Her partner picked up on her tenseness. He tried to quite his complaining stomach as quickly as possible by stuffing the entire cabbage filled dumpling into his mouth at once. Pete threw away the bag into a passing garbage can then moved onto his large hot dog. He was mid bite when something caught his eye. In the crowd half a block ahead Pete caught a motion of a lopsided shoulder and a brown head. He wouldn't have thought much of it except that he got a vibe at exactly the same time.

Myka noticed that she was walking alone. She turned to see Pete frozen mid bite and starting straight ahead. "Pete?" She took a step towards him but then he dropped the hot dog and started walking fast past her. "Pete!" Myka spun around to follow him.

"What Pete? Do you see him?" Myka nearly had to jog to keep up with Pete cutting through the crowd. "Pete!"

"Yeah!" Pete tried to keep sight on the back on the man's head. "I mean, I think so."

"You think so?" Myka wanted to know if she should start yelling and flashing her badge or keep just keep shoving her way through the crowd.

"Yeah. I got a vibe. Half a block up, to the left of the side of the street. 5' 7" maybe 5'8" dark collared shirt." Myka started straining to see through the crowd. "You see him?" He caught another glance of the man right before a banner blocked Pete's view. "There! Myka do you see him?"

Myka moved between a family and ran into a dancer. "No! Where?"

"Come on." Pete moved forward slipping around a father with a child on his shoulders. He kept seeing glances of what he thought might be the assassin. He wasn't sure, but his vibes were. They jumped every time he caught site of the man. Pete saw the man's profile as he looked over his shoulder. The agent's eyes went wide. It was the same profile from the picture in their file. "Myka! _It's him!"_

"Ok. Ok." Myka started cutting through the crowd and got ahead of her partner. She kept looking ahead but didn't see the assassin until- "I see him!" She caught a glimpse of the dark haired man in the dark colored shirt. She wouldn't have thought much about the man, he looked like a normal man, but the slight hump in his shoulder gave him away. It looked like he had his hand in his pocket. Myka probably wouldn't have even noticed it if Claudia hadn't alerted her to it.

The agents were moving faster and closing the distance between them and the assassin. The man wandered to the right side of the street, out of Pete's line of site. "I lost him!" Pete cried.

"Ok. I got him." Myka could see the man's head bobbing in between the people in the crowd. Suddenly the agents had to stop for a band and dance troop that were making their way down the street. Pete and Myka tried to move through and around people but they had to just wait for the crowd to move. Pete tried to look for the man but he didn't see any signs of him. Once they were around the white clad dancers and drums the agents regrouped.

"Got him?" Myka asked.

"No." Pete said and cursed in frustration. They both scanned the crowd furiously as they walked until Myka called out. "Got him!"

She surged forward leaving Pete to keep up with her. The man wasn't alerted to the agents' presence yet. He strolled down the street casually and stopped as he came up to a craft booth. Myka held her breath as she waited for the man to turn around. "I think I can see his face!"

The assassin started to turn to look at the booth. His face was coming into view when Myka went down. She tripped over empty boxes left out by a produce booth, sending her sprawling in the street.

"Myka!" Pete turned to see Myka sitting among empty fruit crates.

"Fine! Go!" She waved Pete on who spun and kept up the pursuit. Myka cursed and pulled herself out of the mess. She followed a few dozen feet behind her partner.

Pete strained to see the assassin again. He was starting to wonder if he lost him when he saw the color of the man's shirt through the crowd. The agent cut out to the left side of the street and saw the man's head again. The assassin made his way to the left side of the street as he came up to a corner. Pete kept his eyes on the assassin waiting for the man to turn. Just as the assassin started to turn to show Pete his face a truck pulled up and the assassin passed behind it, out of sight.

"Damn it!"

"What?" Myka caught up to him just then.

"He went left. Come on." The partners hurried up the street.

As they approached the truck half a block later, the assassin was nowhere to be found. Myka and Pete spread out. They had to finally admit that the man was gone.

Pete looked like he wanted to kick something. Myka spoke before he could break anything. "Hey. He can't just disappear!"

"Well, it looks like he just did!"

"No. I mean... where did you last see him?"

"Right there!" Pete went to the corner and pointed to a truck across the street. "Then that stupid truck backed up and blocked my view." As he spoke the truck pulled forward and revealed a store front with an "OPEN" sign in the window. Myka looked at Pete and raised an eyebrow. He raised both of his. She smirked a little and tilted her head to the store. He followed her across the street.

The agents cautiously entered the small store. Myka's hand twitched for her gun, but she was hopeful that the assassin didn't know that they were on to him yet. Pete was close behind her. They quickly determined that the assassin wasn't in the store.

Pete approached the shop keeper. "Hay, ma'am, was there a man who just came through here? Like a few minutes ago?"

"Yes. There was… um… brown hair?"

"That's him!" Myka said. "Where did he go?"

"He – uh- looked at a few things then went out to 5th street, through the other door." The lady motioned to a second door at the end of a short hallway. Myka looked at Pete and ran to the door. She returned in a few seconds shaking her head.

Pete turned back to the lady. "This man, we're looking for him. Could you give us a description?" The lady looked unsure, so he added, "Like what was he wearing? Was there anything – unusual about him?"

"Uh.. no. He looked- well… normal. Brown hair, brown eyes. Had on a black button shirt and jeans." She shrugged. "Normal."

"Right. Normal. Thanks," Pete said, trying to hide his disappointment.

He and Myka gathered in the front of the store. She said, "We know that he went through here right?"

"Right."

Myka smirked. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Pete sucked in a breath and nodded, then let it out and switched to a head shake. "Nope."

Myka deflated and let out her breath. "The spectrometer?"

Pete's face brightened. "Oh! Right! Same like before. We go get the duro ray gun, flash it around and get a face on our perp!"

Myka smiled at him finally figuring it out. "We have 5 hours."


	9. Got you

**Thanks SunKrux. Hope to keep you excited in the story for a while longer. It picks up from here. :)**

**Thanks for you feedback InuGhost! Thanks for the reminder to post! heh... (blush)**

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The two agents quickly returned with the durational spectrometer. Pete quickly removed the store worker for a few minutes after flashing his badge and using the words "Secret Service". He came back into the store to see Myka adjusting the dials on the durational spectrometer. "Hey!"

Myka saw him entering and heard his objection. "Well you got to use it last time."

"Yeah so I know how to use it."

"Well it's my turn!" She shot him a look of annoyance and turned the spectrometer to try to read the dials.

Pete was looking over her shoulder and decided to start giving her advice. "Turn that one. No- look…" She had to slap him as he reached for the spectrometer over her.

She shot him a look and wondered how again he got through training for the service let alone Marines. Pointing the spectrometer gun at the entry way, she pulled the trigger. Myka frowned as nothing was revealed. She let out a huff and Pete suppressed a grin. Myka tried another knob but still no results surfaced. She almost gritted her teeth when she finally asked, "Ok, what knob is it?"

Pete bounced up and down like a child and pointed. "That one!"

Myka kitted her brows. "Well it's not labeled!" she snapped. The agent pointed the durational spectrometer at the front doorway and activated it again. A see-through brown colored man appeared frozen at the doorway. Pete and Myka's both caught their breath. Myka's eyes narrowed. "Got you."

Pete edged around Myka in the small store to approach the specter of the man. The man's head was down, looking at the door closing behind him. "Hey Myka... fast forward him a bit."

"Yeah." Myka slowly turned the knob on the side of the gun and the man slowly walked forward. She stopped when the man was looking straight ahead giving them a good view of his face. Her partner walked around the man taking in his features. He stopped at the image's front and stared at his face. Myka walked up beside him, looking into the assassin's eyes. "Call Artie."


	10. Focus

**To make up for the previous short chapter. ;)**

**Thanks for reviewing and making this a favorite story. There are a few new subscribers that have joined lately. Welcome. **

**I do listen to reviewers and add/change/remove with thier feedback in mind. Feel free to be critical. Its how we all get better.**

**Releasing this slightly early to make sure that it goes out. **

**Now- on with the story.**

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A rare quiet moment was interrupted suddenly by the annoying buzzing of Artie's Farnsworth. The senior agent jumped and let out a short scream as the buzzing was transmitted into strong vibrations behind his ear. Claudia scampered up in reaction to his distress and dove for his Farnsworth when she saw her boss grabbing at his ear and pulling the Audio Box from his shirt. She quickly opened the device to stop the buzzing. Claudia looked at Artie rubbing his sore ear. He waved her off while mumbling out "Fine. Fine."

"Artie?" Pete's voice queried.

"Yeah. Pete. Hey what's up?" Claudia answered after raising the Farnsworth to eye level allowing Pete to see her.

"Claudia. Hey. Artie there?"

"Yeah he's right here."

"We got eyes on our guy."

"Nice!" Claudia handed the Farnsworth over to her boss and flopped back into her seat.

"Yeah. What's up?" Artie squinted into the tiny screen and concentrated on Pete's lips.

"Hey. We used the spectrometer, well Myka tried to," Pete turned slightly to smirk at his partner while Myka rolled her eyes. She interrupted, "We can ID him Artie. Can you see him?" Pete turned the Farnsworth to show an empty store front. From off the screen Myka's voice said, "Can Claudia record the image somehow?"

Artie grunted in annoyance. He understood most of what was said, but when they turned the picture, he had no chance of understanding without reading their lips. He rubbed his brow as an automatic response to his tension before he turned to Claudia with a pleading look in his eyes.

The techie got up and took the Farnsworth from him. She laid a hand on her boss's shoulder while he looked up at her, suddenly reliant on her for information. Claudia peered into the black and white screen. "Hold on Myka" she said. "Artie, they're using the durational spectrometer to see the assassin guy, but I can't see anything on the Farnsworth."

The senior agent was shaking his graying curls before she finished her sentence. "It's a spectral image, reproduced from residual energy, you can't transmit that. Its—its not physical, uh- the phasing gets off…"

The red head frowned in thought a moment before her face cleared into surprise. "Ok, like scanning something too many times?"

Artie tilted his head as he considered her comparison. "Um… yeah. Uh. Sort of." He looked at her with confusion but admiration at her ability to grasp elusive concepts quickly.

"Ok Pete, Myka, you guys have the only eyes on this guy" She said.

Pete's voice came through the device. "What—you guys can't see this?"

"Nope. Its something like taking too many pages out of a flip book. Beyond the capability of the Farnsworth." Artie opened his mouth to correct her phrasing, but changed his mind and settled on glaring at the girl.

The image twirled around as Pete turned the Farnsworth back on himself. He took a breath. "Ok. We'll get this guy now that we know what he looks like." Myka rejoined him on the tiny screen. "Hey, everything ok over there?" The two agents peered into the little screen. "Where's Artie?"

Claudia was never good at lying when she liked the person. "Oh Artie got himself shot at while breaking up a bank robbery and—"

"_**Claudia!**_"

"WHAT?" Myka nearly screamed into the Farnsworth.

Pete exclaimed "A bank robbery!"

"Is he ok? He was _shot_?"

"What? No, no!" Claudia tried to calm their concerned clutter of communication.

"CLAUDIA!" Artie hollered at her stopping the conversation. He could feel short, different pitched vibrations that he assumed meant that Pete and Myka were upset and speaking quickly. He got up and took the Farnsworth from her. "I'm fine!" Myka had pushed her way in front of her partner and they were both wearing looks of concern. "Listen. You'll hear all about it **after** you get back! _I'm fine!" _He stopped them from both talking over each other.

"**STOP!** I am fine. Everything is _fine!_" He took a deep breath to help calm everyone down. "You got a look at the assassin?"

Myka backed up enough to exchange a worried look with Pete.

"Well?" Artie forced.

Pete was the first to answer. "Yeah. We got the specto gun on him."

Artie flinched at his slang. "Durational spectrometer."

"Yeah that, so we got a good look at the guy."

"Good!" their boss was pleased. "Ok, now that you know where he was, get some info on the guy and _call me_. We'll ID him."

Myka forced her way forward again. "Artie, is everything… are you ok over there? I mean if this guy doesn't make a move, maybe we should…"

"NO!" Artie yelled but then sighed and composed himself. He forced his voice to be lower and calmer. "Listen to me. This is as close as anyone has ever come to stopping this assassin. This _International Political Assassin using an __**Artifact**_!" he stressed each word. "We are _going_ to stop this guy and it's going to happen **now**." Artie threw a steely gaze at his agents until he was convinced of their resolve. "Find him. Get me an ID." He flipped the steel case closed ending the call.

Artie sat down at his desk taking a moment. He took a deep breath then said, "Claudia Donovan, there are **reasons** why I do or do _not_ do things!" He turned his chair to look at her.

"You want me to lie to them?" she huffed. "They're only worried about you Artie!"

"They are on a case! A _dangerous_ case! They don't need to know about, about _this_!" he motioned to the box in his pocket. "When they get back you can fill them in on every little detail to your heart's content but _until then_, **case work only!"** He stared at the girl until she gritted her teeth and huffed in acceptance. He pressed her. "Understood?"

"Yes sir." She said with as much attitude as she could muster.


	11. Car Keys

**Thanks for the reviews guys!**

**Jahmen, thanks for reading! I'll try to keep you entertained.**

**InuGhost and SunKrux, I am happy to see that you're worried about our favorite Warehouse Supervisor! Happy to see that you are involved in the story. **

**As always- everyone can feel free to review or contact me in private. **

* * *

After the screen went blank Pete closed his Farnsworth. He looked at his partner and sighed. "I guess we have to get an ID on this guy."

Myka's brow was still crinkled in worry. "Pete, you think they're ok over there?"

"No." He sighed. "But I think that they can handle things, so I'm not going to worry about them until we are done with our jobs here."

"Yeah. You're right." Myka squared her shoulders and rubbed her forehead to focus. "Ok. Now that we know what he looks like, lets ask around. Someone has to have seen him and know who he is."

"Wait!" Pete suddenly said. "Myka, lets follow him!" Myka gathered her eyebrow in confusion. "Use the specto gun. Forward him up and we'll see where he goes!"

Myka relaxed into a smile. "Yeah!" She raised the durational spectrometer still in her hands and the see through brown man reappeared. Turning the dial, the man slowly walked forward to the side of the store. Myka sped up the image until he was at a normal pace. Pete followed the man closely, stepping through him to get ahead of the image.

The two agents followed the image until he stopped and reached down waist high. Then he picked up one foot and stepped over something. The residual image of a car seat and steering wheel came into focus as the man touched the objects. As the engine started, the electrical interference made the image flickered and become less clear. "No, no!" Pete expressed his frustration when the image wavered and disappeared as it accelerated into the distance.

Myka lowered the spectrometer in disappointment. Pete looked down the side road where the image disappeared. "Wait!" He turned around at his partner's exclamation.

"What?" he jogged back to her. She was fiddling with the dials on the side of the spectrometer.

"Did you see the keys?"

"Uh… no" he replied honestly.

"Wait. Ok, ok here." She raised the gun and aimed it at the parking spot. The brown image of the man walking reappeared. Myka turned the dial to forward the image until the man was pulling his keys from his pocket. She clicked the dial back one notch and the man froze in place. "There. Are those… rental car keys?"

Pete squinted and turned his head sideways to line up with the tag hanging from his car keys. His eyes went wide. "Yes!" He squinted again, trying to make out the words on the fuzzy tag. "Looks like—an A? Alamo? I can get a partial plate… looks like… R something… um… 79? Can you forward it a little?" Myka nodded and worked the knob back and forth until Pete was sure that he got as much information as possible. Pete straightened up and shared a grin at the first solid lead in the case.

"Ok, let's put this thing away." Myka tucked the spectrometer under her arm and glanced around. "We can call Artie in the car."

"Yeah, let's give him a few minutes to chill out." Pete agreed. He hurried after her.

The partners made their way back to their car. Pete caught his own reflection in the car window as he reached for the door handle. Suddenly something reached up, wrapped around his heart and stole his breath. He heard Myka's voice from far away. "Pete?"

Pete was staring as if hypnotized. "Pete, what's wrong?" Myka said.

"I'm getting a bad feeling Myka" he whispered.

"You mean a vibe?" she queried. She usually didn't like his vibes, but seeing the fear in his eyes got her really worried about what he would say next. "Is it about Artie? Pete who…?" When she didn't get a response she slowly walked up to him as he stared into the car window. She had never seen him look so scared before. "Pete?"

"Myka. It me. My vibe is about me." He swallowed hard. Pete looked Myka in the eye and said, "I'm going to die."


	12. Grounded

**As always, thanks for the reviews and thanks to all of those who are reading but not commenting. Love you too! ;)**

**SunKrux. What can I say? Going old school and challenging me to come up with a Johnny 5 quote. Nicely done.**

**BlackB- you'll just have to see! I'd hate to be on the recieving end of some of your harsh words though.**

**InuGhost- No you didn't. (Sighs and hangs head with a groan.)**

**Maria Rene. Artie relaxes! Er- sometimes. Um... (Flips through the story.) Last- er- last 2 chapters! Heh.**

**And now on with the show.**

* * *

Myka and Pete waited until they were back in their run down hotel room before pulling out the Farnsworth. For once, Myka was the one who took the lead calling the Warehouse convincing Pete to not wait, but call their boss about his vibe.

She sat down with the Farnsworth and glanced at Pete sitting across from her holding his head in his hands. After a few moments Artie appeared on the screen rubbing the side of his neck. "Yeah!" He said grumpily.

Myka ignored her boss's discomfort. She had more pressing matters. "Artie… Pete had a vibe." She glanced at Pete. She could tell that he was worried.

Artie squinted as he read her lips in the small screen. "What? About who?" he queried.

Myka's lips twitched. "Well…"

"What? What's the matter?" Artie interrupted. He could see that she was distressed and Pete wasn't even in his little black and white picture.

"Artie it's about him. Pete had a vibe – about himself." The words flowed out. Pete held his breath.

"About Pete?" Artie asked softly. Myka nodded and gulped. She saw her boss's eyes float off screen as he contemplated what she said. His mouth drifted open slightly before he focused back on the screen. "Where is he?"

"He's right here." Myka turned the Farnsworth around and handed it to her partner.

"Hey Artie." Pete said meekly.

"Tell me about the vibe." Artie demanded.

"Artie… I just…" Pete huffed before continuing. "I saw my reflection and got a vibe."

"You're sure it's about you?"

Pete nodded miserably. "Yeah… I'm sure."

"Is there anything else? Any details at all?" Pete shook his head. "And you still have it?" Pete nodded and gave his boss a worried look. He saw the senior agent sit back heavily in his chair.

Myka lifted her head and said, "There's one more thing Artie."

The old man sat forward and leaned into the device. "What? Say that again. Let- let me see you."

Pete handed the device back to his partner. "We have a lead that we need you and Claudia to look up. It looked like our assassin rented a car." She gave Pete an encouraging look who nodded. She saw Artie reaching off screen to type on his computer.

"A rental car?"

"Yeah. We saw it on the durational spectrometer. He had—car keys with a rental tag on them." Pete handed her the paper with the partial tag written on it. "It looked like an "A" on the tag, so maybe Alamo, or Avis?"

Artie, with his monitor reflecting off of his small glasses said, "There are 8 rental car agencies starting with "A's" within an hour's drive of you."

"Well, we have a partial plate too." Myka saw her boss's face lighten at the news. She referenced the paper. "First letter R and ends with 79."

"Ok. Great. We'll get on this and get back to you. In the mean time Pete is not to leave that room."

Pete jerked his head from his hands and stood up. "What? Artie no way!"

"Let me see him." Artie requested after receiving a sharp, strong vibration. Myka handed the Farnsworth back to Pete.

"Artie- there's no way that I'm hiding when we are this close to catching this guy."

"Pete! Listen to me. Myka can handle this." Pete shook his head and opened his mouth but Artie interrupted him. "I'll get local law enforcement to back her up."

"Locals? Artie, you said yourself, this guy is too good." Pete exclaimed.

"PETE!" Artie yelled then focused in on his agent and said softly. "Is there a chance that you're wrong?"

The younger man hesitated. He remembered his reflection and his vibes jumped. He lowered his head and said meekly, "No."

Artie softened his voice. "Then you are staying there. Let Myka take it from here." Pete slowly sat back down. He gave his partner a look of utter misery. Artie's voice continued, "Give me 5 uh- 10 minutes. I'll call you back. CLAU-" The screen went black.

Eight minutes later the Farnsworth went off.

Artie was all business. "We have an ID. Mark Cullen. I'm faxing this drivers license to the hotel's front desk, it should be waiting for you. 5284 Cantina Road. Myka, I've arranged for the local law enforcement to meet you there as back up."

"Great!" Myka was already grabbing her coat.

"Wait, Artie." Claudia interrupted. "It's a bogus address. Look, satellite photo. It's an abandoned lot." She turned the monitor for her boss to peer into. When he saw the empty field he hung his head.

"This guy plans _way_ ahead." He mumbled into his beard.

Myka spoke into the Farnsworth "I can take a look anyways."

Claudia relayed the statement to Artie who was looking away at the time. He rubbed his graying beard in thought. If they didn't have a hard lead then his agents could use a break.

"Its late. Take a look tomorrow. Then hit the town with his picture from the identification." He stuck his face into the Farnsworth. "Myka, take the locals with you. And _be careful_! Pete!"

"Yeah Artie?"

"Stay put!" He shot a hard look at his nervous agent then flipped the device closed.


	13. Headlines

**Ok, a small break from my schedule in the anticipation of Super Bowl Sunday. To avoid conflict with the game, I'm releasing the Sunday chapter now. **

**To those posting feedback: ****Thank you for all of the kind words and suggestions, good and bad. I do take them to heart. Thanks for taking the time to help make the story better!**

* * *

The next morning Artie and Claudia were hard at work looking for traces of the assassin. Claudia frowned as Artie sat down with a new cup of coffee. "You want that in an IV?" She scoffed at his grunt. "What? You need a nap today too?"

The old man huffed in annoyance. "My ear started ringing last night so I didn't get any…" he stopped short wondering why he was telling her so much. "Don't you have work to do? Do you have an address on Mark Cullen?"

"No. I mean not yet." She picked up her boss's displeasure. "Well, he's not in any of the local databases. I'm referencing the city's main frame now, but its probably a fake name." Artie grunted and rubbed his neck against the stress. The girl tilted her head and said, "There's the couch in the loft. I can call if anything pops up," offering him an option.

"No no. There's too much work to do." He shook his head, and refocused on his computer screen running a daily surveillance program on the Warehouse. Launching another program to search for any artifacts that allowed a person to hide, or distract people, he looked over his shoulder at Claudia who turned when the door opened.

Leena strode in with a purpose. "Have you seen the paper this morning?"

The two Warehouse employees looked at each other. Artie answered, "Nooo" in a question. Leena grabbed the edges of the Univille newspaper and snapped it open. Splashed across its front was a bold headline reading "**Local IRS Agent Stops 6 State Bank Robbing Spree**." Underneath was a fuzzy picture from the inside of the bank showing portly brown figure pinning a black figure in a corner. The two figures were struggling with what was clearly a gun.

Artie sprung from his seat and Claudia's eyes went wide. He leapt across the room at Leena and snatched the paper from her. Mumbling, he scanned the article quickly. "No! I got all of the pictures from the bank."

Claudia chimed in from over his shoulder. "Well it looks like you missed one professor."

His eyes came across a reference from the picture. "Internet video?" he blurted. The techie went to her desk and launched a search for the video. In about 0.33 seconds the results showed. Claudia clicked and a little video started to load.

"Here. I got the video." She expanded it to full screen and clicked on the play icon. Artie and Leena slowly stepped to the screen in curiosity.

The screen showed a scene outlined in a black box. The view was from the inside of the bank looking at the entrance way. It showed a flash of a man vaguely identifiable as Artie on the ground and the back of a man opening the door in front of him. The view jumped into nothing and a man's voice off camera said "He's going to shoot that guy!" Then a shot and woman's scream punctuated the silence causing all three agents to jump.

The screen went black and jumpy before it came back to the entrance way where the darkly dressed man was now pinned in the right corner of the screen by the fuzzy portly shape. The view was moving, but it showed the shorter man pinning the larger man's hand against the glass trying to dislodge the gun it was holding. Leena flinched when the larger man kicked the fuzzy Artie in the screen who held on.

Suddenly there was more commotion and two dark forms blacked out the screen as they ran towards the entrance way. In the light outside of the entrance, the video showed the two guards handcuffing the robber on the ground and grabbing the gun from the robber being restrained in the corner. The video's resolution sharpened slightly as the person recording it stepped closer to the scene. Voices from inside the bank were talking over each other and someone started crying. "They got them! That guy got them!" one man's voice rose above the others.

The brown clad figure was pulled back by one of the guards. The video focused on the guards handcuffing the second robber. When it pulled back up it showed a split second of a fuzzy Artie standing at the entrance way stunned before he jumped forward to grab his bag then backed up and ran off screen. More commotion from inside the bank was heard before the person recorded said, "I think I got that!" The video ended.

The three warehouse employees stood in stunned silence. The entire video was thirteen seconds long.

Leena's brow crinkled in sympathy and worry. She reached out and touched Artie's shoulder.

"I intercepted all the cell phone and video data from Univille yesterday. I know I did." Artie said softly to himself. "How – how did this get out?"

The techie minimized the video and leaned closer to the monitor. "Well, looks like it was published at 10:10 yesterday morning." She mentally arranged a time line. "It was probably posted online before you got back to the Warehouse. They can do that now." Claudia tried to console her stunned boss. She said, "Looks like you got six hundred views. That's not bad." She honestly reacted before her eyes went wide as Artie puffed up. "I mean that's _bad_."

"It's too many! Take it down!" Artie yelled. Claudia immediately sat and started hacking into the internet to retrieve the video from the server.

An alarm horn pierced through the office. All three heads whipped around until they settled on the scrolling red digital display in the corner. Scrolling across its front was "B&B…B&B…B&B"

Artie looked at Leena who stared at the screen. "My Bed and Breakfast." She walked briskly for the exit. He launched into action, grabbing his Tesla and Farnsworth then following her out the door.

Before the door closed Artie stuck his head back inside the office. "Get that video **OFF** the internet!"

"Artie, be careful!" Claudia yelled as the door closed. She stared at the closed door a second before forcing herself back to her computer to wait and worry.


	14. Break In

**Thank you Blackburn. Have to read as we go! **

**InuGhost; I'm not sure what kind of comments Artie's video would get. Heh fun to think of though! **

**Thanks SunKrux. I have corrected those errors. Thank you. Sharp eye as always! ;)**

**Now, lets see what set off that alarm at the B & B. **

* * *

A 1959 red Jaguar slid sideways to a stop in front of Leena's Bed and Breakfast. If there was anyone else behind the wheel but Artie, Leena would have been hoarse from screaming, but she knew how well he drove his car so she focused on gripping the car door and on the alarm that was set off at the Bed and Breakfast.

Leena jumped out of the Jaguar before the dust cleared. Artie quickly followed. Everything looked calm from the outside. "Stay here." Artie said automatically as he wielded his Tesla.

Leena balked. "No way Artie. We go in together." Artie opened his mouth to order her to stay in the car when Leena reached out and tapped the box in his pocket. He flinched at the dull thud transmitted behind his ear. "You're not one hundred percent. We go together." She turned and marched up to the front door. The aging agent rubbed the back of his ear. He had nearly forgotten how uncharacteristically tough Leena could be when what she loved was threatened.

At the front door Artie pulled Leena back. He got in front of her and examined the door. There didn't seem to be any obvious signs of forced entry on the door or front windows. Artie ripped a note off of the door and handed it to Leena to read while he continued to evaluate the front of the Bed and Breakfast. After a second he looked at her. "He wants an interview." She said.

"What? Who?"

She referenced the note. "Alan Crawford. He wrote the article in the paper on you."

"How do you…" Artie didn't have to finish his question before Leena answered.

"He's been calling. A lot." She sighed and looked around nervously, as if she expected the reporter to jump out of the bushes. The clairvoyant then answered Artie's next question too. "You've been so busy with the case. It was just a persistent reporter, I can handle a few phone calls." She looked at him with worry and regret. "I guess he got tired of me telling him no."

Artie nodded with sympathy in his eyes. He suppressed the growing anger in his stomach and focused on the door sliding his key into the dead bolt, but it wasn't locked. "I locked the bolt when I left." Leena said with a tinge of panic. "Artie, I know I did."

He nodded. "Ok." He knew that meant that someone had been there and opened the door, he figured probably the nosy reporter. With all of the possibilities in his line of work, Artie couldn't afford to take any chances. Sliding his key into the door handle, he unlocked the front door and entered, Tesla raised.

A quick search revealed that everything was quiet at the Bed and Breakfast. After Artie cleared both floors, Leena went through again to make sure that everything was in order. He was resetting the Warehouse alarm when Leena returned. He didn't have to see her aura to know that she was upset.

The clairvoyant turned on Artie. "Someone was in here! In my place!" Artie flinched more at the panic that edged her voice than from the sharp vibrations shooting up his neck. "Artie, what are we going to do about this?" She glared at him in a way that Mrs. Fredrick would be proud of.

"Claudia and I will put up additional security."

"Artie, this guy broke in! A couple of motion sensors aren't going to stop him."

The agent frowned. He knew that she was right. This reporter crossed the line. He walked up to Leena and took the note from her. "I'll just have to change his mind then."


	15. Danger Spreads

**Thanks to all the reviewers!**

**Back to Pete stuck in his hotel room and Myka tracking down the assassin with the help from a couple of local cops!**

* * *

Pete paced around his hotel room not really able to focus on anything in front of him. His mind kept going over the case again and again; constantly coming back to the fact that his partner was out there alone. Pete was Myka's partner and he should be there for her. He would never let Artie live this down if anything happened to Myka.

"Stop thinking like that Pete!" He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

He was stuck, all because of his stupid vibes. Vibes about him. That never happened before. If he could just get the vibe to change then he could convince Artie to let him help Myka. He paused a second to reconnect to the sinking feeling in his gut and see if there was any changes to it. He swallowed uncomfortably because it was still there. He was safe in his decrepit hotel room, away from danger and _still _his vibe hadn't changed. Somehow he wasn't out of danger. He wondered how Myka was and his vibe shifted in response.

Pete lifted his head in surprise and sudden concern. He was still getting a vibe, but it was about Myka now too. He jumped up and grabbed his tesla, badge and jacket. It was one thing to try to hide to save himself, but no way was he sitting around while his partner was in danger. Shoving things into pockets, he ran out the door.

Pete jogged to his car with his phone at his ear. "Pick up Myka. C'mon, pick up." He heard the phone connect. "Myka? Myka!" he nearly yelled.

"Pete? Hi." Myka replied with concern in her voice. "What's up? You're still at the hotel right?"

"Yeah about that…" He got opened the door and got into his car.

"Pete! We talked about this! What about your vibe?"

"Myka! It's changed. Listen. I got a new vibe."

"A "new vibe"? About who?" Myka listened and heard a car motor start. "Pete!" she barked. "Where are you? Who is the vibe about?"

Pete took a steadying breath. He knew that he had to tell her. She needed to know. "You Myka. I got a vibe about you."

Myka froze with her mouth half opened wondering if she heard correctly. "Me." Her stomach dropped. "Pete your vibe is about me?"

"Yeah." He breathed out. He tried to swallow but his mouth was dry. "Myka I'm sorry. Please be careful! Listen, don't worry I'm on my way."

That was enough to get Myka out of her revere. "What? _No_ Pete! No way. Stay at the hotel."

"Myka I'm not letting you die in my place!"

"Pete! No one is dying today!" she didn't believe her own words but she had to say something to keep Pete there. "Pete! Pete!" She realized that she was talking into a dead line. She hung up her phone with way too much force.

Myka thought hard. Her only chance was to get the artifact before Pete did. Maybe that way she could remove the threat before he showed up and— well she wouldn't think about what would happen if it didn't work out that way. She jumped out of her car and marched with such a purpose that people scattered out of her path.


	16. Acoustical Maintenance

**A special extra chapter in celebration of Valentine's Day.**

**Lets just say that its a little extra "love" from writer to readers, not to mention reviewers! ;)**

**Thanks as always for the feedback.**

**We skip back to the gang at the Warehouse.**

* * *

The warehouse supervisor was alone in his office. He had ordered Claudia to install additional security to Leena's then she disappeared; that was an hour ago. Leena also made herself scarce. Artie mentally made a note to check on her if he hadn't heard from her in twenty minutes. He wanted to make sure that she wasn't too shook up after the break in earlier.

Deep in his thoughts, the agent opened up the personnel file of Allan Crawford. He read that Mr. Crawford was a local from Univille, South Dakota and a local reporter. Artie figured he was probably still looking for his "big break".

Artie let out a short shout and winced. Ringing from his ears started feedback from Bell's Audio Box. The result was a high pitched squeal fed directly into his skull. He jumped and scrambled to remove the Box from his shirt pocket. He dumped the box, microphone and entire contraption on to the desk and held his head, desperately trying to stop the ringing in his ears.

Just then, Claudia entered the office with a painting in her arms. She froze when she saw Artie at his desk but he was too occupied to notice her. Her face morphed into concern when he didn't yell at her for moving the portrait. She quickly stashed the painting behind her desk dropping it a little when Artie let out a pathetic little whimper. "Oh! Sorry!" She whispered to the painting before turning to her boss. "Artie?"

He found that if he pressed his ears hard enough it lessened the painful ringing. The noise was both internal and deafening. Artie knew that he couldn't stay there all day holding his ear, so he forced his hand away from his head, but groaned and buried his head when the ringing intensified. The agent caught motion from the corner of his eye and saw Claudia just before she reached out to touch him in concern. He saw her lips move but let out another groan when he realized that he couldn't hear any of her voice over the squeal in his head.

Shaking his ear to try to clear it, Artie saw Leena opened the door to the office. A question formed in his head when he realized that she was entering from the Warehouse floor.

Leena hung up her brass portable phone with the hand that wasn't holding a box. She evaluated the situation, seeing Artie's aura painfully jilted with black spots and Claudia's blue and purple with concern. The clairvoyant pressed her lips and said, "Artie, I have something for you."

The graying boss looked at her with suspicion mixed with hope. "What- what is that? Who were you talking to?" His voice came out much louder than necessary.

Leena brushed by his questions and Claudia and opened up his Farnsworth. She adjusted a dial and pressed the button. Dr. Calder's image appeared in the little black and white screen. "Leena, hello again."

"Hello Dr. Calder. I have Artie here and I think that he's ready."

Artie looked from the Farnsworth to Leena and back. By lip reading he caught only about half of the words spoken diverting his attention between the two women and trying to overcome the ringing in his ears. "What? 'Ready?' Ready for what? What have you been doing?"

Vanessa called out. "Artie, she's concerned about you- and so am I." He caught enough of her sentence to get his full attention on the Farnsworth. Artie opened his mouth to interject but Dr. Calder continued, "You should have called me sooner." Artie's calloused defenses crumbled in front of Vanessa. He sighed and gave in to whatever plan they had hatched. Dr. Calder smiled with understanding seeing her friend's resignation and shifted her attention to the caretaker. "Leena, is it charged?"

Donning neutralizer gloves and tinted protective goggles, Leena reached inside of the box containing Barnum's Top and an old tuning fork wrapped in wire. The top was spinning and glowing. It transferred it's energy to the fork which was glowing with the same blue aura. Leena drew out the tuning fork and examined it.

"Has the aura transferred Leena?"

Leena squinted against the brightness of the aura. Even Claudia and Artie could see that the tuning fork was glowing the same blue as the spinning top. To the clairvoyant's eyes they both shone brightly even through the dark goggles. "Yes. The fork is charged."

Artie gulped audibly as Leena held up the tuning fork and approached him. Vanessa called out. "Artie close your eyes!" But the agent didn't hear her as he was staring at Leena carefully cradling the highly charged fork. For the second time in as many days he was being hunted down by a woman with an artifact.

Leena gently reached out for Artie who drew back until he was pinned between his chair and his desk at his side. She struck the fork against the desk and held Artie's shoulder as it rung. He jammed his eyes closed right before she stuck the bottom of the fork into the base of his skull.

Bright blue flashed in his vision and he heard a loud 'POP' as pain exploded from his ears.

From somewhere too far away he heard Vanessa's voice calling him. Artie opened his eyes to see his desk top an inch from his face. He realized that he was resting on his hand in front of his computer, probably placed there by Leena. Last thing he remembered was her hand on his shoulder. Raising his head, he grunted against a splitting head ache. Claudia crouched at his side while Leena ripped off her goggles and removed the artifact top before it had a chance to affect Artie's appendix.

The old agent gingerly rubbed the back of his abused ear. He sat back to see a worried Claudia peering up anxiously at him. Dr. Calder's voice came through the Farnsworth. "Leena, is he ok?"

"I'm fine Vanessa." He replied.

Claudia's face cleared into a smile. "You can hear her."

Artie smirked at her after his eyes were able to focus again. "And you." He said out of the side of his mouth. He was relieved that the pain was quickly receding.

Leena returned to evaluate him. Artie's aura was returning to normal. She said to the Farnsworth. "Dr. Calder, it worked."

Vanessa was calm as ever in the Farnsworth. "Good!" Her reassuring smile shone through to Artie before turning professional again. "Plenty of fluids Artie. Your ear drums have been through the ringer." The old man huffed in amusement at her pun and Vanessa crinkled her eyes in a suppressed smile. "Leena?"

The ever-calm woman leaned into the Farnsworth as she took off her neutralizer gloves. "Yes, Dr. Calder?"

"Be sure to call me again if there are any changes. Either way I will talk to you tomorrow for a checkup with Artie." Vanessa glanced in the old man's direction to make sure that he acknowledged with a nod. "And Leena? Good work."


	17. Lucky

**Quick release because of the holiday.**

**These are my favorite few chapters here, so I hope that ya'all enjoy them.**

**As always feel free to let me know your opinion on them.**

**Here we are back to Myka in the field with the backup from local law enforcement because Pete is stuck in his hotel room because of his vibes.**

**On with the story.**

* * *

Myka had better luck in tracking the assassin now that she had the picture off of his driver's license. A cashier had recognized the assassin and told Myka of a restaurant that he frequented. The local police officers that Artie had sent went around to the far side of the block while Myka hurried to the front of the open air café.

As she approached, an old man walked in front of her. He tripped on the sidewalk and fell. Myka bent over to help him up, inadvertently revealing the gun tucked in her belt. As she was dusting the old man off she heard a small commotion. She looked up to see the back of brown head running away.

Myka knew that she'd been spotted. The assassin paused long enough to look back. He and Myka locked eyes for a moment before he sprinted down the street. The agent scampered around the old man and gave chase.

Just then the two local police officers came around the far corner in front of the assassin, pinning him between them and Myka. The two cops saw the chase. They yelled and started towards the running man. The assassin saw the two cops in front of him; without breaking stride he made a quick left turn towards the middle of the busy street.

"NO!" Myka and the cops screamed at the same time.

The man ran straight through the traffic. Horns blared, but not one car touched him. He hit the far sidewalk and continued running without looking back.

"Lucky." one cop said as Myka ran up to him.

She looked at him with a look that said _no kidding_ but just said, "Yeah."

The two cops took the lead to stop traffic using their uniforms to hold up the surging traffic. Myka sprinted after the assassin with the 2 uniformed cops pounding the pavement hard right behind her.

The assassin slipped past people on the crowded sidewalk easily. Myka and the 2 officers repeatedly ran into people. As the next intersection approached Myka saw the assassin grab his necklace. He sprinted ahead. The traffic light changed as he approached and the assassin sprinted across the intersection as the pedestrians were crossing. Myka was closing on him and she charged across the street just as the light was changing back to green. The two uniformed cops yelled at the cars to stop as then crossed. They then followed the assassin and the agent as they turned down an alley.

Myka looked ahead to see a flat bed truck blocking the narrow alley ahead. _Finally!_ She thought that perhaps the assassin's luck was running out after all. The assassin saw the truck but didn't slow down. He jumped onto a closed garbage can and used that to vault himself into the air. He landed on his back end in the bed of the truck and onto a mattress. The assassin landed and rolled out the back of the truck; stopping only long enough to smirk at Myka before running down the alley to the right.

The agent didn't hesitate. She stepped on the garbage can and leapt into the truck bed but her luck wasn't as good. Myka landed on her back and hard on her right elbow. She grimaced and grabbed at her right shoulder as she rolled out of the truck, running up the alley.

The two uniforms ran up to the garbage can that Myka knocked over. "You see that?" one said. The other went to the front of the truck and yelled at the bewildered driver. "Move this thing!" the driver started the motor and crept forward. The two uniformed officers squeezed past and ran after Myka.

Pete sped down streets towards where Myka went looking for the assassin. Every time he thought of his partner he felt like someone punched him in the gut. He swerved around a car, blared the horn and stepped on the gas pedal harder. Pete stopped by Myka's car and turned in his seat looking for her. He reached for his cell phone to call her when he heard tires squealing a few blocks over sending his vibes into his throat. Pete jammed the car into gear and peeled out towards the commotion.

Myka turned the corner following the assassin with the uniformed cops close behind. The three pursuers ran up hill in a narrow alley. Myka was just noticing that they were rather closed in. The she saw it- the alley was fully blocked at the top by a dumpster that the assassin was pushing. He gave it a shove and it started rolling down the narrow alley.

In the small gap that existed between the dumpster and the brick wall of the alley, Myka saw the assassin. He made eye contact with her. Then he turned and ran down a side street.

Myka put her arms out. "Stop! Stop!" she and the two cops skidded to a stop. The dumpster started to pick up speed as it rolled downhill. It bounced off either side of the alley clearing by just inches. The dumpster rumbled louder and louder as it rolled faster.

The agent looked for options. She saw a cross street in the alley ahead, but she knew that the dumpster would crush them before they could reach it. "Back! Go back!" But even as she tried to herd the two officers back the way they came in, she knew that they would never make it.


	18. Pierre

**BRB welcome aboard! Glad that you are caught up. Thanks for the input!**

**InuGhost- might I just um.. borrow that Magic 8 Ball? I do have a few issues that it can clear up for me. Heh. (Go Cubs.)**

**Ok, leaving Myka and Pete in the field to go back to the Warehouse gang.**

* * *

The door to Leena's Bed and Breakfast opened. The disheveled supervisor of Warehouse 13 entered looking a worn down and hungry. He called for a much needed break at the Warehouse, sending Claudia, Leena and himself to the Bed and Breakfast for lunch. With his sporty Jaguar he easily beat them back, using the drive to blow off a little bit of the stress that they had all been under lately.

Using a few moments of alone time, Artie evaluated Claudia's job of extra surveillance for Leena's place. Glancing around, he didn't notice any additional surveillance, but perhaps that was a good thing; that it was well hidden. He would have to ask Claudia about it when she got there. The old man sighed in weariness and dropped his bag and keys on the table by the door. Walking into the building, he noticed an old portrait hanging on the wall. He eyed it suspiciously, trying to remember if he had seen it before as he walked past. In the kitchen, Artie helped himself to a left over half-sandwich. Chewing as he went, he doubled back to the entrance to get a file from his bag and noticed a small mirror hanging under the staircase across from the portrait. He frowned in thought as he passed, shoving the rest of the sandwich in his mouth.

Artie was digging in his bag for the file on the disturbingly persistent reporter when he heard, "Joo are Missur Artie no?" The agent's hand went from file to Tesla. He spun around wielding the weapon to an empty room.

Artie blinked. Stepping silently, the jumpy agent crept forward. He glanced up the staircase then peeked through the doorway into the living room and kitchen. Seeing no one, he called out in a strong voice, "Who's there?"

After years of experience with strange artifacts, Artie knew not to disregard his senses. Although he now wondered, he didn't let himself doubt what he heard. He came back to the spot by the entrance way where he heard the voice and waited, Tesla raised. Looking around, his eyes drifted across the old portrait and it blinked.

Artie leapt back two feet and screamed. He felt slightly silly when he automatically pointed his Tesla at the painting, wishing to God that he had neutralizer on him. The hallway wall went fuzzy until Artie realized that he dislodged his glasses. His hand fumbled with nerves until eventually he replaced them straight on his nose.

Eyes wide, the agent stared at the now still painting. The neat man in the portrait wasn't moving and looked to be nothing more than paint. His artifact senses on high alert, Artie leaned forward to the painting and asked. "D-did you say something?"

The paint shifted as the man in the portrait moved his mouth and said, "Jes I did." The little painted man blinked again.

Artie's brain went spinning into high speed rendering him incapable of speech. He managed to stutter as his eyes jumped around the painting, taking in all the details and trying to search his memory to place the artifact painting that was talking to him.

"Artie, is it not?" the painting said.

"W- wh… Y-yes." The old man flinched and gathered himself. "Why are you here?" He raised his Tesla again.

"That girl, Claudia, she-"

"_**Claudia?**_ I _knew _it!"

The painting frowned at the rude interruption. "She gave an assignment to me, for the Warehouse."

"**WHAT!"** Artie was incredulous. "She _told_ you about the Warehouse?"

The painting was calm in the face of the loud man. "She told me very little. I knew about the Warehouse before she was born."

The old agent went on offense. "You are going _back_ to the Warehouse where you belong!" Artie stowed the Telsa in his bag and shook it looking for any canisters of neutralizer.

The portrait bowed his head slightly. "Zo be it. Would you like my report?"

Artie's head snapped up. "What? No! I don't want anything from you!" He quickly waved his hand at the painting with both annoyance and a bit of fear.

The man in the portrait decided to continue anyway. "At 1:12 today, you, Artie Neilson, a man of 5' 7" 275 pounds," Artie flinched a little bit, "entered through the front door. You deposited your bag and keys and walked through the hallway."

"You… were watching me?"

The painting blinked again. "Why jes. Zat is what I do."

The portrait paused then continued to describe in accurate detail Artie's actions in the Bed and Breakfast including the type of lunchmeat in the sandwich that he ate. The agent balked at details of him in the kitchen.

"But… How?" he said as he considered the painting facing the staircase, away from the kitchen.

"Je mirror." The painting raised his hand and pointed to the small mirror behind Artie. "Claudia and I positioned it so zat I can see ze back door and kitchen."

Artie let slip a "Humph."

The painting tilted his head and looked at Artie. "Zat girl, she is quite clever, no?"

"Yes. I mean…" he stopped, remembering that he was talking to an artifact, but looking at the man in the painting again, Artie finally acknowledged his heavy French accent.

The agent decided to feel out the artifact a little more. He switched to French. "Allez-vous répondre à toutes mes questions?"

"Oui."

"à n'importe quel moment?" he reemphasized.

"Oui."

The old man hesitated. So the painting could speak other languages. It also agreed to tell Artie anything that he wanted to know. In spite of his prejudice against using artifacts, he wanted to test the linguistics of the artifact man. He switched to his far too rusty Russian. "Tu par Rusku?"

"Nemnogo."

So he spoke Russian. Artie tried Spanish. "Espanol?"

"Por supuesto!"

"Quantas idiomas?"

"Once."

Artie was impressed in spite of himself. The painting could speak eleven languages. If nothing else it could be terribly useful with translations.

The painting switched back to English for the comfort of his questioner. "You are the supervisor of the Warehouse, are you not?" Artie drew up but didn't offer the artifact any response. "Claudia has told me that you are over even herself and that I should obey you above all others. Zo I will follow your orders and obey you."

Just then the front door opened and Claudia entered the hallway followed by Leena. The painting smiled when he saw his first friendly face in 100 years. The girl looked at her boss and the portrait. She heard voices as she entered, but then they stopped talking and both looked at her. She didn't know what was said, but she didn't like their looks. "Hey Artie." she said tentatively.

Her boss's eyes narrowed. "Claudia, when I said 'install monitors', I did _not_ mean artifacts!"

"Ok, Artie, I know…" she put her hands out to hold his objections off while she explained. "But- you wanted monitoring and information, that's what Pierre was made for!"

Artie hitched up at some strange sense of offense. "Pierre?" He drooled out.

"Yeah…" the girl's eyes shifted to the portrait then back. "You were talking to… Dude! You didn't even ask his name?"

"He's not a… a person! He's an artifact!"

Leena emphasized his words. "'He'?"

"**IT!"** Artie glared at Leena who raised an eyebrow at him as she took off a light jacket. "When I said 'monitoring', I meant- video cameras!" he spat out.

"Artie! I…" Claudia changed her mind about what to say mid sentence. She let out a breath and shut her eyes for a moment to focus. "I don't have _time_ to install a video system!" she blurted out.

"I said that I would help."

Claudia let her words rattle out quickly. "Yeah, but then you wanted me to search for that reporter, and do you know how _hard_ it is to remove a video from a public system, not to mention track all of the downloads?" her voice spiked. "We've been running support for Pete and Myka all day, not to mention that the weekly C level inspection on the Warehouse is two days overdue **and** you went and got yourself shot at and about scared me to death!" She stopped breathless while Artie blinked as he took in her words. "Pierre is the best that I can do."

The teen felt some stress release after her small tirade. She let she shoulders slump after they had crept up with emotion. She continued in a calmer tone to present her case for Pierre before Artie blew up back at her and sent him back to storage. "Look, he can monitor the front and back door. I'm educating him on forensics for finger prints so that he can tell us where to look. So, unless you have a better idea or more time…" when her boss didn't respond immediately she threw up her hands. "I have to eat. I'm starving!"

Artie opened his mouth and took a breath to counter Claudia's artifact use when Leena caught his eye. She gave him a concerned look with a bit of sadness gathering her brow together. He flicked his eyes back at his apprentice and recognized the red eyes and frazzled stress that Leena saw. He set his jaw, stuffing his argument away. Instead he growled out, "We can talk about this later." He then turned sideways giving Claudia permission to slip by him. The agent looked at the artifact portrait intending to flip it over for some privacy, but it was already vacant.

Leena walked up to stand beside Artie and took a deep breath. They both watched Claudia leave. Leena continued their non-verbal conversation. "She's stressed. You're working her too hard." Leena said sideways to him.

The agent looked at her out of the corner of his eye then sighed. "I know." He rubbed his eyes with frustration because he didn't have much of a choice. "How's her aura?"

"Tense." Leena paused then added, "Like yours." She shrugged to release the stress building in her own shoulders. "But she's tough. She can take it." The old man lifted his shoulders with a jerk of agreement. "Just take her out for pizza after this is all over."

"Yeah."

"You can both use it."

Leena smiled, exuding her ever-present sense of calm and left him in the hallway.

Artie glanced up and saw that the little man was back in the painting. He stepped quickly up to the portrait and growled, "I'm going to find out all about you and if you give me _one reason_ I'll put you in the Warehouse somewhere that no one will ever find you."

Pierre sounded as if he forced his voice to be calm. He returned to Artie a steady gaze. "My maker is gone, as is his love. Claudia found me so I belong to her." He paused for emphasis. "She follows you and so do I."

Artie leaned closer to the painting. "Even if I tell you to hide some things?"

"Jes."

"Even from Claudia?"

"Jes. You are- how do you say…? 'The boss'."

The old man's eye twitched involuntarily as he considered the conflicts of securing artifacts and immediate security. His struggle was interrupted by his stomach leaping at the first smells of lunch floating from the kitchen. He shot a sideways glance at "Pierre", finally attaching a name to the man of paint, before he grudgingly left the painting in place.


	19. Rescue

**Very short chapter, I know.**

**At least the next update will only be in 4 days and the action is pretty fast!**

**Back to the field, with Myka and the local cops trapped by the dumpster in the alley.**

* * *

Myka put her arms out. "Stop! Stop!" she and the two cops skidded to a stop. The dumpster started to pick up speed as it rolled down hill. It bounced off either side of the alley clearing by just inches. The dumpster rumbled louder and louder as it rolled faster.

The agent looked for options. She saw a cross street in the alley ahead, but she knew that the dumpster would crush them before they could reach it. "Back! Go back!" But even as she tried to herd the two officers back the way they came in, she knew that they would never make it.

Suddenly the dumpster was pushed violently sideways as a car hit it from the crossing side street, crumpling the hood of the car. The three pursuers exhaled in relief. Myka recognized the head that bounced off of the deployed air bag.

"Pete?" Pete snapped his head up. Myka ran to the car that blocked the alley way. She banged on the passenger side window. _"Pete!"_

"Myka! You ok?"

The brunette let out a breath seeing him respond. "Yeah! I'm fine." His vibe had _her_ jumpy.

"Which way?" he asked.

"That way!" a uniformed officer pointed to the end of the alley way before Myka could stop him.

"Right." Pete jumped out of the car.

"No Pete! _No! _Your vibe!" she tried to open the passenger side door but it wouldn't open. She considered jumping over the hood, but it was crunched into an accordion of sharp, hot metal and spewing steam.

Pete started up the alley way. "I'll be fine! I promise!"

Myka was desperate as she screamed, "_Pete!"_


	20. Allen Crawford

**Thanks To InuGhose, beta reader and reviewer. Welcome back SunKrux and others. Glad you could make it. I hope that everyone enjoys. I worked hard these last few chapters to try to get the flow and pace right for action. Feedback appreciated, as always.**

**Ok we're leaving the agents in the field to follow Artie taking care of some loose ends.**

* * *

Allan Crawford.

Artie knew from his research that Crawford was a young, attractive looking man. He lived in a town outside of Univille that was even smaller than the unincorporated town that the Warehouse was by.

A young Allan created a school newspaper in his high school after discovering that public funding for the school was making its way into the principal's pockets. No kids, no wife, Mr. Crawford was unattached. That told Artie that he had little to lose.

Claudia turned up an internet site that showed an up and coming Mr. Crawford. His status line read "Out looking for the next big story!" and provided nearly a dozen ways to contact the reporter. Fortunately his page hadn't been updated in 2 days. Artie half expected his own fuzzy picture from the bank to be plastered on the report's website.

The agent donned his long overcoat and hat to meet the reporter outside of town. Fortunately, the Bad Lands of South Dakota allowed for many places to meet that were far outside of civilization. He drove up to a parked car at a cross roads and walked over to the young man standing beside a midsized sedan.

Allan Crawford spoke first. "You are not an easy man to find Mr. … Nielsen. Correct?"

"There's reasons for that." Artie responded without confirming his name.

"Care to share?" the reporter pried. Getting no response he said, "Does the IRS protect all of its agents so fiercely?"

"Some. Which is why you need to drop this story and leave me alone."

"I can't do that Mr. Nielsen. I have a big network who wants my story if I can get an interview with you." The reporter paused to judge if the offer of getting on TV affected Artie. Seeing that the agent wasn't impressed, he tried another motivation. "I can make it worth your while." Allan pulled his hand out of his pocket and presented roll of cash.

Artie huffed. He judged that the cash in Crawford's hand was the young man's entire weekly paycheck. "You don't understand."

"Then make me."

"I can't be public. Go with the guards, they are your story. They caught the robbers."

"Sorry sir. The networks, they want an interview with the man who single handedly took down two armed men!" The reporter tried to tempt his ego. "Those guys robbed 10 banks in 6 states, hitting small towns with minimum security, and they got away with it until they ran across one government employee protecting his country! You're a hero Mr. Nielson! Let me tell your story!"

"There is no story. Drop it!" Artie barked back. He lowered his voice to a growl, stepped close to the young reporter, and bluffed, "And if I ever catch you breaking and entering again, I'll give my evidence to the police and have you arrested." Artie was satisfied when the young man's composed exterior finally showed a crack and his face lost some coloring.

"But… I didn't…"

"Don't bother lying to me." Artie said what he wanted so he turned to leave.

"Mr. Nielson!" Allan reached out and grabbed Artie's arm, pulling him back. "Listen, if you won't do it for yourself then help me out. This can be my big break, my way out of Univille. No one will ever look at a reporter from 'No where' South Dakota without a big story! This is once in a lifetime! If I don't get you I'll never get out!" The report's hardened edge faded and Artie could see desperation in his eyes. "Can't you help me?"

"No. I can't." Artie pulled his arm away and walked to his car.

The agent sat in his car and leaned over to the glove box. He took out a box. Artie glanced at the reporter getting into his car through his windshield. He verified that a light was lit on the box then pushed a button. A small vibration shook the Jaguar as an electronic pulse emanated from his trunk.

Allan Crawford got into his car and pulled out a micro recorder from his pocket. He pressed a button rewinding the recording of his conversation with Artie then pressed play. He was listening to the agent's voice when suddenly, the voice cut to static. Panic shot through the reporter. "No, no!" He scrambled to press the rewind button and played an earlier portion of the meeting but listened only to more static. The reporter's head involuntarily went back against his headrest when he realized that the tape was erased.

Artie watched the young man strike what he guessed was a hidden recorder. He was satisfied that meant that the recording was effectively erased. Relaxing a little bit, Artie considered the young reporter. Crawford was certainly talented. He would have had to assemble Artie's identity from the witnesses. Fortunately, his distinctive red Jaguar was not directly observable from the inside of the bank, but still Mr. Crawford didn't seem to have a problem figuring out that Artie stayed at Leena's Bed and Breakfast. It really was a shame that there weren't more opportunities for someone with his drive in Univille. Artie shook himself. He thought, _Not like it's up to me to save everyone in this town! _He watched the young man hit his dashboard in frustration then lean forward on the steering wheel.

Artie's eyes went cold and his mouth twitched. He started his car and left the young man in his rear view mirror. He knew he had to get back to the Warehouse.


	21. Pete's Persuit

**LadyNRA. Thanks for the heads up! The correction has already been made! **

**kendralynora. Welcome back! You like Peirre eh? He seems to be popular. You like "gave chase: eh? Personally, I like "For the second time in as many days he was being hunted down by a woman with an artifact." Lol.**

**To the other reviewers and readers- Thank you! And yes, Artie does take things serious sometimes don't you think? ;)**

**Now we go back to the field, with Pete chansing the assassin.**

**Ready? Here we go!**

* * *

Pete pounded the pavement hard. He caught sight of the assassin turning the corner two blocks ahead of him. He glanced over and cut to his left. He ran down a block and cut across an open café. He leapt over a small separating fence and cut half way down the block. He saw the assassin running half way up the block. Pete surged forward. He was fresh and hoped that the assassin was starting to tire. He just hoped that the guy wasn't a marathoner. He surged forward with adrenalin. Even his gut was starting to relax a bit telling him that maybe Myka was safe.

The assassin slowed his pace. He turned and didn't see the uniformed cops following. He spied Pete running hard at him just before Pete caught him. Pete tackled the assassin. They both tumbled into the grass of a park. They struggled and Pete wound up on top of the assassin. The man cried out "Help!" Suddenly a bystander shoved Pete off of the assassin.

"Hey!" Pete protested. "I'm the good guy!" The assassin scrambled up and started running again. Pete got up. "Secret Service!"

The bystander held up his hands. "Sorry man! He said 'help'!" Pete shook his head. He ran around the man and after the assassin.

The assassin turned sharply to the left down another alley way. Pete followed him to the corner. Suddenly his vibe jumped. Pete stopped dead in his tracks. He took another step and his vibe was so strong that it was actually painful. Confused, he was unable to do more than just hold his ground. The agent's face was conflicted. As much as he wanted to move, he couldn't make himself turn the corner.

Just on the other side of the brick corner, the assassin waited for Pete with a 2 x 4 poised over his shoulder ready to strike. The assassin waited on one side, Pete's vibe froze him on the other. Every time Pete thought about chasing the assassin, his vibe crushed his gut. Then suddenly it was gone.

Pete's confused face faded. He took a step forward but his vibe stayed gone. He peaked around the corner and took off when he saw the assassin running up the alley. "Stop! Secret Service!" he shouted as he sprinted up the alley way.

The assassin climbed on top of some trash to the top of a dumpster. He grabbed the ladder of a fire escape and climbed up it. Pete was hot on his heels. Pete climbed the dumpster and grasped the lowest rung of the ladder. He paused. "Ok, no vibe." He climbed up after the assassin.

The assassin climbed up to the fourth floor landing. He saw the agent still pursuing him. He looked across the narrow alley way. The opposite wall had another fire escape climbing up it. The assassin climbed onto the railing of the landing.

Pete looked up and saw the man perched on the upper rail of the top of the fire escape. He followed the man's gaze across the alley way to the opposite fire escape. "Stop! Before someone gets hurt!" Pete yelled.

The assassin rubbed a medallion around his neck. He looked down through the grating at Pete and said "Yeah. You!" Pete watched in amazement as the assassin leapt into the air across the alley. He somehow squeezed between the fourth floor and the third railing, landing on the third story fire escape. His momentum crashed him into the wall, but the assassin quickly recovered and looked at Pete who was now on the same level, just across the alley way.

"Ok. Ok, that's how it is hu?" Pete climbed out onto the third floor railing. The assassin smiled in patient disbelief. He waited to watch the secret service agent fall to his death. Pete looked down, evaluating the drop. "Ok. No vibe." He took a deep breath and leapt.

The assassin watched as Pete jumped to the landing below him. Pete reached out with all four limbs and snagged the second floor railing. He looked up. Pete and the assassin locked eyes. The assassin's eyes narrowed. He took off into the open window on his landing. Pete responded. "Oh yeah. Game on!" as he climbed over the safety railing.

Pete quickly scrambled over the railing and into the window on his floor. He sprinted through a small apartment. "Sorry. Secret Service!" he yelled to someone in the kitchen. Pete grabbed the front door knob but it was locked. "Come on!" He quickly unlocked the dead bolt and the chain, cursing his luck. "Ma'am lock this door!" he yelled as he wrenched the door open. Once in the hall way Pete glanced both ways and found the only stairway out of the building. He knew if he was quick enough that he could pin the assassin in the floors above him.

Pete threw his shoulder into the stairway door bursting it open, just barely missing the assassin as he ran past. Pete's momentum carried him forward and he reached out as the assassin turned the tight corner. Pete grabbed the assassin's collar. "Ha!" but then the collar ripped in his hand and the man ran down the stairs leaving Pete holding a worthless piece of cloth. "Really?" Pete threw the scrap and picked up the pursuit again.

The agent busted open the door to the street. He saw the assassin running away and ran after him. He was gaining on the tiring man when his vibe kicked into high gear again. Pete skidded to a stop. The assassin continued running at full speed up the street, but as soon as he passed an intersection a speeding car ran through the alley way just behind him. Pete realized that had he been chasing the assassin, he would have had no chance to avoid the car. He swallowed uncomfortably and ran up the street, now half a block behind.

The assassin ran straight up the street. Suddenly he was tackled from the side. He got up quickly as he rolled off of his attacker and kept running. Pete caught up to the person on the ground. Myka was rolling in pain. "Myka!" She sat up and triumphantly held up the assassin's necklace complete with lucky coin medallion.

"Go!" she yelled. Pete back pedaled away from his partner and turned and ran up the street. Myka fell back on the pavement clutching the coin.

Pete ran after the assassin up another street. The assassin approached another busy intersection. Suddenly Pete's vibe kicked up again. He desperately yelled out "Don't do it!" The assassin looked at the oncoming traffic but didn't stop as he ran into the street. A car smacked into the assassin sending him flying. Pete could hear the sickening sounds as the man landed on the pavement, narrowly getting missed by a second car. He ran up to the assassin, sweaty and out of breath but it was too late. The man was dead.

"Call 911." Pete instructed one of the stopped drivers. He ran back to check on Myka. She was sitting with her back to the wall on the street. Two by standers were trying to help her. "Myka! Are you ok?" Myka looked up at Pete, surprised to see him return so quickly.

"What happened? Where is he?" She didn't want to use the word "assassin" within ear shot of the general public.

Pete shook his head and tried to catch his breath. "He didn't last long without the arrr…. uh- his lucky charm." He changed his phrasing mid sentence, glancing at the two strangers. "The only place he'll be going to is the morgue." He looked at her carefully. She wasn't sitting quite right. The agent thanked the bystanders and assured them that he would take care of Myka. After sending them on their way he turned to his partner. "Where's the coin?" Myka held up a neutralizer bag. Pete could see the round shadow of the coin in the lower corner. He smiled and doubled over with his hands on his knees as he tried to lower his heart rate.

After a second, Pete offered his hand to his partner. Myka accepted it with her left hand, suppressing a grimace as she stood. She was pretty sure that her shoulder was dislocated. She looked to the sky to help deal with the pain. It was bad but not anything she couldn't handle, for a little while at least. Just then an annoying buzzer started. Myka retrieved the Farnsworth and handed it to Pete.

"You ok?" Pete looked at her with concern.

Myka nodded "Yeah. Go ahead." She knew that Artie would be frantic with concern.

Pete opened the Farnsworth. "Yeah Artie" he said breathless. "We got it."

"**PETE!"** Artie looked ticked off and intensely worried. "What are you _doing_?" Artie's face filled the small screen. Pete could tell that he jumped to his feet and was leaning in on the Farnsworth. His boss was downright scary when he was that upset. "I _told_ you to stay at the hotel!" Artie's forehead was bunched in a scowl as he yelled at his agent for disobeying orders.

"Artie! I had a vibe about Myka! I couldn't just let her…"

"You put yourself in danger!"

"Artie! Relax!"

"_**Relax?**_ How can you think-"

"Artie—Artie! We got it!" Pete repeated. Artie's mouth was open to yell his next rant. He closed it in surprise. Pete's second statement seemed to have gotten through to his boss.

"You got it?" Artie repeated in a much calmer tone.

"Yeah. All bagged and ready to be tagged." Pete tried to catch his breath but talking to a panicked boss wasn't helping any.

"The assassin?" Artie asked.

"Dead." Pete replied. "Road kill."

Artie looked noticeably relieved. His shoulders dropped at least 2 inches. "Where's Myka?"

"She's right here." Pete said.

"I'm right here." Myka called out but didn't move from her place leaning on the wall.

Artie frowned and leaned forward. He could sense that something wasn't right. Myka always made sure that she was in front of any Farnsworth communications. Just hearing her voice off scene was enough to concern him. "Let me see." He ordered, waving his hands in frustration for having to repeat that request so often.

Pete turned the Farnsworth around on Myka. She pushed herself from the wall to talk into the Farnsworth biting her lower lip against the pain from her shoulder. She held up the neutralizer bag with the coin and put on a smile.

Artie turned around to Claudia who was right behind him. "Ambulance."

"On it." Having seen Myka's grimace herself Claudia was already punching the order directly into the town's emergency services main frame.

Pete turned the Farnsworth back onto himself. "Artie I'm not sure where we are." He looked up for street signs.

"You're on Pecos and 90th." Artie replied automatically without moving from hovering over Claudia's shoulder.

"Wha—how did you know?" Pete knew Artie was good, but he was impressed with the speed that his boss figured that out.

"Myka had me track your cell phone." Verifying that the ambulance was dispatched, Artie came back to his agents. "I guided her to your location during the chase."

"Ah! Clever partner!" Pete flashed a grin at Myka.

"Well when you go all lone wolf on me." Myka grinned sheepishly. "Someone has to keep an eye on you."

Artie leaned into the Farnsworth and shoved his glasses back on his nose. "Pete. How's your vibes?"

Raising his eyes, Pete thought about that for a second. "Nada. No vibes."

"None?" Artie pressed. "Not for you? Anyone?"

Pete shook his head. "Nope! Not one vibe!" He smiled.

Artie dropped his head and released a breath that he'd been holding since they left.

Claudia reported. "EMS should be there."

Artie and Claudia could hear sirens coming from the Farnsworth. "Ok you two get looked at. Then ca—well you know."

Pete smirked, said, "Rodger." and closed the Farnsworth first for once.


	22. Return

**Maria Rene- indeed! That scene got this whole story going in the first place. I wondered what Pete's vibe would be, like, in full blown survival mode. I got this story out of it.**

**SunKrux- Mistake corrected. Thanks for your eagle eye!**

**InuGhost- they have very good health insurance! ;) Thanks for the "sad" comment! Sort of makes me feel good and bad at the same time! Lol...**

**Thanks to the other 94 people who have read "Lucky" since Wednesday. This chapter is a few hours ahead of time, but RL persists. **

**We rejoin the Warehouse to see Pete and Myka returning.**

* * *

The outer door opened up into Artie's office at the Warehouse.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Pete's playing voice entered nearly before he did. "Look who's _back_ with the art- _ti_- fact!" Pete opened the door waving a bag with the assassin's lucky coin artifact shadowed in the lower corner. He was closely followed by a more subdued, but smiling Myka with her shoulder in a sling.

Claudia spun around from her computer with a grin for the returning pair. "Welcome back to home base!"

Myka smiled at finally seeing Claudia in person. "Thanks," she said.

"You ok Myka?" Claudia asked worried about the woman's sling.

"Yeah." The older agent smiled reassuringly. "It should come off in a few weeks."

Pete tossed the bag and artifact on Artie's desk. "So, where's Artie?"

Claudia said, "He's running a check on the warehouse. We, uh, ran a bit behind with the case and all." Myka scrutinized Claudia noticing her run down energy and slight bags under her eyes. The young tech continued, "So, what happened with the whole vibe thing?"

Myka said, "Artie didn't tell you?"

Claudia shook her head. "Nu-uh."

Pete launched into the story. "Well, my vibe didn't let up, even though Grouchy Boss Man locked me in the hotel." Claudia nodded this part she knew. Pete sucked in another breath and glanced at his partner. "After we bagged the artifact, we went back to the hotel to find out that they had a gas explosion!"

Claudia's eyes bugged out. "What?"

"The whole second floor!" Pete stressed with his fingers flying outwards. "Boom! Gone!"

The techie oogled at the pair. "Gone?"

Myka chimed in, "Well, he had just left so there was no one in the room at the time."

Claudia stressed to Pete, "If you were there…"

Pete said, "Yeah, one toasty Pete!" Pete motioned emphatically. The three Warehouse employees shared a look and silently thanked their dumb luck.

Just then the door to the Warehouse opened and Artie entered, arms full of paperwork, as always. "Ah! You're back!" He dumped his armful of stuff on his desk, pulled out a record book, and handed it to Claudia. Continuing an obviously earlier conversation he eyed her saying, "Enter it quickly hm?"

"Ya ya..." the girl took the records book and tossed it by her keyboard.

Artie hesitated at seeing her fling the book casually, but then he spotted the neutralized artifact on his desk and turned to evaluate his agents. After verifying that they were basically in one piece, he carefully walked up to Myka. Looking her in the eye, he touched her non injured arm quickly and asked. "You ok?"

She returned his concerned gaze with a smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

The supervisor relaxed when he saw her sincere smile. He switched gears. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah." Myka pulled out a man's wallet and handed it to her boss. "Artie, why did you want it?"

The warehouse boss nearly let a smile slip upon seeing the wallet. He reached out and took the wallet. "We have a…" his eyes narrowed as he searched for the right word. "…pesky annoyance that I think this…" he waved the wallet. "…will help me take care of." He didn't elaborate but threw the wallet into his bag along with a few other items then he grabbed his coat and headed for the door. He clipped his sunglasses on then turned around and said, "Oh. Welcome back." He shot a smile out at his team and let the door close behind him letting Claudia fill them in as to the happenings at the Warehouse while they were gone.


	23. Trade

**Thanks for the reviews guys!**

**Glad that you all like the gas explosion and "Artie being Artie". Heh. ****And he didn't use an artifact in this chapter! **

**Well here is more of it. Lets see where he went.**

* * *

A manila folder slapped down in front of Allan Crawford. His fork stopped half way up, his mouth hanging open in anticipation of the steak that flopped back to his plate. He raised his gaze to see the enigma that was Mr. Neilson sit down in the empty chair at his table. Crawford set down his fork. From the looks of the man sitting across from him, it looked like he wasn't the only one having a rough day.

"Change your mind Mr. Nielson?" The reporter forced his voice not reveal the excitement at seeing his biggest story come to him, not that he knew how this IRS agent found him at dinner.

"Not hardly." The man huffed.

"What's this?" Crawford motioned at the file on the table.

"A trade." Artie fixed the young man with a steely gaze. The young reporter forced himself to hold the older man's gaze in spite of the discomfort. "Story for story." Artie leaned forward. "You drop the bank story. Wrap it up by giving the guards credit, say that you reached a dead end, I don't care. You never mention my name again. If anybody ever asks, you don't know who I am."

Crawford's pulse increased. He could feel something big coming; he just had to wait for it. "I let the biggest story of my career die? And what do you have that could possibly make me do that?"

Artie use his whole force of character on the young man. "A story that spans the globe. An exclusive story of international intrigue. Major political consequence. This file," he motioned to the folder on the table, "has the entire story from beginning to end, with the assassin's identification card and FBI contacts for verification."

The reporter tiled his head, he was intrigued. "'Assassin?' What type of 'political consequence' are we talking about?"

"The UN diplomat from Nigeria. Ambassador Ibrahim Moussa Ogwu." Artie could see that Crawford vaguely recalled the unusual name. "He was assassinated back in June." He filled in the blanks for the reporter.

"And this …?" Crawford again referenced the manila folder lying untouched on the diner table.

"…is the exclusive story of the assassin, from beginning to end." Artie said dramatically. He waited for the young man to decide.

The young reporter forced himself to calmly take a sip of his water before reaching for the file. Artie was impressed at the young man's ability to stay calm. He noticed that his dinner was a smaller portion, probably from the early bird menu, therefore saving the young reporter a few bucks, betraying his tight financial position. Crawford glanced around the diner before he started flipping through the file.

The older man thanked the waitress for bringing him a glass of water then refused the menu while the young man read. After a full minute the reporter spoke. "Ok Mr. Nielson. I'm interested."

"Good."

"I'll need to be able to verify your information. Contact with those directly involved in the case."

"Once I have all of the material that you have on the bank robbery, then you'll get the contact information, identification, and the FBI leads on the case."

"Those will be the agents directly involved?" Crawford pressed.

"No. You'll have access to their supervisor. The agents directly involved are highly classified." Artie's tone left it clear that the point was non-negotiable.

"The supervisor will go on camera about the case?"

"Yes. I've contacted him and he's agreed and received clearance now that the case is over." Artie left out the part where Mrs. Fredric approved the trade and supplied the FBI supervisor to do the interview.

Crawford knew that he was holding his ticket out of Univille in his hands. He just had to be smart and get the full story to pitch it to a national network. "I'd like to run it by my editor. And you'll have to give me the full case." He referenced the blacked out areas and lack of FBI contacts.

"No editor." Artie countered. Crawford was good at his job at routing out information. Artie thought that he could go far if he took the opportunity that he was offering him. "Decide now. If you want this, I'll give you an hour to get the rest of the bank story to trade for the FBI contacts and the details on the case. Everything is verifiable."

The senior agent didn't fall for the reporter's delay tactics. He knew that the young man just wanted to see if he could figure out the story from what he saw and therefore not have to trade for the information, but still hold on to both stories. "I'll also make you sign a confidentiality agreement. If you ever pursue me, or anyone around me again, I'll _chase you down_ and take whatever creditability you had." The agent gave the young man another hardened glare from beneath his bushy eyebrows and let his voice drop into a growl.

Crawford's eyes narrowed. He didn't like to be threatened, but then, he saw that the older man had covered all of his bases. The information that he was allowed to read in the file was enough to prove to him that Mr. Nielson knew about the case, but wasn't enough that he could assemble the case on his own without the additional details that this unkempt, disheveled, but mysteriously powerful man was offering.

The reporter took a breath. In the end, the assassin story was just too good to pass up. He was trading a newspaper headline story for a prime time, 60 minute TV special.

"You have a deal Mr. Nielson."

"Good." Artie said, careful to not reveal his relief. "Be at outside of the hardware store in 60 minutes."

"Make it 30." The reporter countered with a suppressed, excited smile.


	24. Pizza

**SunKrux. Corrected. Thanks, as always!**

**Jimmy. Thank you. Appreciate the comment.**

**InuGhost. Not sure where you are dude. I'll try to keep Artie in line, but the man has a mind of his own! ;)**

**Nearly done folks! Home stretch. Just a few loose ends to tidy up.**

* * *

Taking Leena's suggestion, Artie took Claudia out for pizza after Pete and Myka returned from the field. He made a conscious point to keep work talk to an absolute minimum, but he could have done without the education on the punk rock band that Claudia was into lately. She seemed to be satisfied with him just adding minimal input into that conversation, content to babble about the music and what it "really means." He was relieved just to see her relax and smile, even when she mentioned that they were coming in concert the next month to Rapids City. He choked on his soda when she suggested that he should take her, making them both laugh.

"Perhaps Pete might be a better choice?" He said reaching for napkins to wipe his shirt.

Claudia laughed at her own joke and the reaction that it produced. "C'mon! We can put a streak in your hair." She ruffled his dark curls a bit, envisioning a color while he was looking down. "I'm thinking blue…Ooo! Green!" Artie gave her a good humored scowl. "What? Earth tones! You can wear anything in your closet and it'll match, and I mean anything…" she mumbled with her eyes wide in disbelief at the memory of his multitude of brown and green shirts.

Artie chuckled at Claudia as she continued her fantasy of coloring his hair to include streaking his bushy eyebrows. She eventually got tired of the joke and settled into a relaxed pause with a content grin on her face. Her gaze rose to a group of young people sitting at a table across the diner. Artie looked over his shoulder, following her eyes. Turning back, he saw Claudia smile, eyes looking at the table top.

"You know them?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Met the one girl in town a few times." Artie noticed that Claudia brought her attention back to the table, purposefully ignoring the chattering group.

He tilted his head, considering his protégé. "You should go talk to them."

"Naw. I…." She shifted and looked at the group then back at Artie's brown eyes analyzing her. "You don't mind?"

"Go!" He waved her off. Claudia jumped up then quickly lost her nerve and hesitated, looking at the happy, normal group.

Artie looked up at her in concern, searching his brain for something encouraging, but not overbearing to say. He was saved by a young voice calling out to Claudia. She smiled a little realizing that they remembered her name. She suppressed a grin glancing at Artie in excitement before she forced her feet forward to talk to the group.

Artie kept his eyes forward for Claudia's sake, rubbing his goatee to hide a smirk. He was happy for the de-stressing of the evening that he was sure they both felt as the waitress set down the bill. The total was zeroed out and handwritten across the bottom was, "Thanks Hero. On the House." Artie looked up fairly alarmed. The agent zipped his eyes around the diner and saw the cook and their waitress standing at the door way leading to the kitchen watching him. He didn't acknowledge their gaze, but lowered his eyes to re-read the note and dug into his wallet to pay what he thought the bill came to. Artie looked back up at the employees. The waitress's eyes smiled then dropped down when she went back to serving the other customers. The cook held Artie's gaze a little longer and nodded slightly. Artie gulped then nodded back almost imperceptivity. The man grinned and turned back into the kitchen. Artie thought about it a second longer. He decided to accept their offer. He pulled out a bill for the waitress, leaving a very generous tip.

Claudia returned, "Ready?" She asked.

"Yup!" Artie smiled at her and stepped back letting the girl to go ahead of him out of the pizza place to drive him back to the B & B. "So , how did it go?"

"Fine." She went up to the driver's side door and unlocked it.

"What? You're not going to tell me?" Artie waited for the door to open.

"Nope!" Claudia slipped behind the wheel and started the engine.


	25. Nightly Report

****

**(Giggle) Well I had to come up with some color. It was green to go with his clothes or something to bring out his eyes! Heh. Glad you like it SunKrux!**

**InuGhost- yeah sort of sad to see it end- but time for it! Just a last loose end to tie up. **

**Jimmy. Guess that Artie was trying to be supportive! :)**

**Ok people! Thanks to everyone for reading! This is the last chapter in this slightly epic story. Have to give a thanks to InuGhost and MarieRene for and the others for betaing for me. **

**Thanks also to Jahmen for taking a peek here and to Lynn for poking me to try to create a story with a lucky coin which got this whole thing rolling in the first place! Lol. Little did she know it would be a 25 chapter mega story. :)**

**As always- please give me feedback via whatever means desired. Again, my humblist thanks for reading and making me better.**

**Now- on with our team for the wrap up.**

**

* * *

**

A week later Artie made sure that the entire team was free of activities on a Saturday night. He entered the TV room with a big bowl of popcorn and grabbed the remote. "Your program over?" he asked Pete.

"Yeah it just ended, um.. there something you want to watch? I can head upstairs." Pete offered.

"Hm..? No, no, I mean yes, but stay. You'll want to watch this." He turned to holler up the stairs, "Claudia! Its on!"

Seconds later Claudia thundered down the stairs followed by Myka. The older woman said, "Seriously? Its on TV?"

"Yeah! Well that's what Artie said!"

"What is?" Pete asked the group in general, getting only a suspicious look from his partner.

On cue, Leena entered the TV room and settled in the corner of the couch next to Artie. She helped herself to a bit of popcorn that he offered her. Myka took the opposite end of the couch and Claudia wedged herself in between her and her boss. Slightly flustered, Artie wondered how he ended up sandwiched, while Pete sat comfortably by himself on the end chair. Myka and Claudia both reached over snatching popcorn from his bowl and Claudia nestled into his side. She was close, but he surprised himself when he realized that he somehow didn't find the closeness smothering.

Before Artie could figure out a different seating arrangement, the TV special program came on. "A Special Report from QRT News" flashed on the screen. Seated dramatically by himself, Allan Crawford came on the screen. "Good evening. Tonight QRT News brings you the exclusive story of international intrigue." Artie hitched up as he recognized his own words again.

Leena said to no one in particular, "He has good aura." Artie grunted at the confirmation of his judgment. Crawford was someone worth helping out.

Pete leaned forward as he started recognizing details of the reporter's story. Myka started paying more attention as well. They looked at each other when the reporter revealed that the story was about the assassin who murdered the Nigerian Ambassador at the UN in New York. They both looked at their boss.

Artie purposefully ignored then and tossed a handful of popcorn into his mouth. He already approved the story and watched the entire program before it aired. Crawford kept true to his word and gave the entire credit to the FBI. Artie smirked at his teams' surprise and let them enjoy the telling of their story, even though they'd never receive credit for it.

At the end of the program the young Mr. Crawford said dramatically into the camera, "Thank you for joining me tonight. I'm Allan Crawford, your new special reporter for QRT news. Join me next week for another QRT Special Report."

Artie smiled to himself. Crawford used the story to negotiate his way into the network news. He made it out of Univille. If Artie ever had to get a story into the media, he had himself a good contact who could make that happen; that was on top of the brownie points that he scored by giving the credit to the FBI.

The senior agent sighed in satisfaction and looked at his team. Pete and Myka were sharing amused looks at the TV and each other. Claudia beamed at the two of them, excitement obvious on her face. He looked at Leena. The clairvoyant was calmly evaluating the team as well. She caught Artie looking at her and she gave him a relaxed smile. He smirked back enjoying the calm feeling that completing the case brought.

**Fin.**


	26. Breakfast Briefing Deleted Scene

**Here's a deleted scene that I held onto. It makes a complete scene in my head, which is why I wrote it, but had nothing to contribute to the story, which is why I cut it.**

**For those who have read the story, this is after the first chapter where Artie briefs Pete and Myka. Just sort of ties it all together, for me at least. And its fun. **

**Let me know if this was worth releasing or if I should keep the deleted scenes out from now on. :)**

* * *

Artie's stomach asserted its self at the smell of breakfast. He forced his attention back to finish the briefing before he starved, or worse, fell asleep. "Ok! Last location was New York on the 6th. I traced him to somewhere in Iowa." He handed the agents their plane tickets.

Pete flinched. "Iowa? Are there a lot of diplomats and mobsters in Iowa Artie?"

"No… but this guy doesn't stay off the radar by hanging out in big cities. I suspect that he uses the small towns of America to live in until something else comes up for him. He'll blend in."

Myka glanced at her ticket and looked like she was ready to walk out the door already. She and Pete exchanged one of their looks where they could tell what the other was thinking. Artie watched them and waited. He saw their shared determination and smiled inwardly at their partnership. Neither had anymore questions so he shooed them away to pack with a "Keep in contact!" They thundered up the stairs.

The senior agent sat heavily into his chair. Artie stared at his coffee cup, reviewing the briefing in his mind. He wanted to make sure that there wasn't something important that he missed telling them. He had told them every detail that he wanted to and even a few suspicions that he had on this one. Anything else that they needed he would simply have to find. He felt like he started a timer by setting Pete and Myka on the assassin's trail. Artie wished he knew how much time was on that timer.

He again considered putting himself in the field on this mission. He was the most senior agent and _he_ should be the one out there risking his neck chasing an assassin, but Artie also knew that Pete and Myka would be needed quick and hard to find intel. He knew that Claudia couldn't handle the digging and link connecting, even if Leena were to help. He had to stay in the warehouse on this one. The thought of putting his agents on such dangerous case without him there made his guts wrench.

The old agent was brought out of his trance by Leena walking up to the table. He sighed and reached for the coffee pot again. Leena put her hand on top of his stopping him from lifting the pot. She set down a plate of vegetable omelets under his nose.

Artie gave up the coffee without a fight and grabbed his fork. He just started tucking into the breakfast when Claudia thundered down the stairs.

"Hey Leena!"

"Good morning."

"Where are Pete and Myka going?

"Iowa apparently." Leena motioned to the table. Claudia turned to see Artie wearily poking at his eggs.

"Oh." Claudia knew that a plane ride meant that they were sent on a case. She sat down next to her boss at the table.

"Morning sunshine." She said with obvious sarcasm. She was welcomed with a grunt. Claudia huffed a little at his response, but it was a late night and it looked to her like Artie slept less than she did. "Did you get another shot of that guy?" Artie shook his head and sighed. "But you found his location?" she pressed. The last thing that Claudia knew of the case was late the night before when Artie sent her home after finding her asleep on her computer.

"I found what _might_ be a trail." he shrugged to his toast. "We'll know more when Pete and Myka get on the ground there."

Claudia's empty stomach registered its dissatisfaction. She looked over to Leena who was finishing cooking at the stove. "Hey Leena? Is there…"

Leena smiled a little at the girl and held out some eggs that she had saved for her. "Grab a plate." Claudia jumped up and in a second had a plate ready for Leena to slide the remainder of the eggs onto. "The bread is still out for toast if you want it."

Claudia smiled and said "Thanks." Artie forced a late night working when the mysterious man popped up on their system and she was grateful for leftover breakfast. Claudia joined her boss at the table. Leena took up the coffee pot as Artie was reaching for it.

"What..? Leena…." He weakly protested following the pot with his empty cup.

"You'll never get to sleep if you keep drinking this." She opened the fridge and poured him a glass of milk. She set it down in front of the pouting agent.

Claudia was confused. "Sleep? But we just…." Then she knew why Artie looked so wiped. "Aww… dude! You didn't…. You said that you were right behind me!"

Artie shrunk just slightly at the confrontation. "I was!" he snuck a sideways glance at Claudia. "But then…" _Then… what?_ he thought. There were a million things that he wanted to check out before sending his agents out to confront a _professional assassin_. There were still a million more angles that he wanted to look at and a uncountable other things that needed his attention.

He realized that Claudia was looking at him with a hurt look on her face. "I didn't know." She said. "I would have stayed." Artie opened his mouth to try to say something, but he had no idea what. His brain was foggy from the lack of sleep and he couldn't go from hard core case briefing to teenage emotional speak so quickly. He gave up and shoved the last of his toast into his mouth. Claudia huffed and mumbled something about a "team."

Artie was thinking of the fastest way to remove himself from the uncomfortable situation when Leena caught his eye. She stared at him and motioned at Claudia. The graying agent looked positively helpless. He saw that Claudia was just nibbling at the edges of her eggs. He caught her saying something about "I'm part of the team… with a bed time!" He looked to Leena for help. She gave him the "talk to her" motion with her hand. She crossed her arms and waited, encouraging him to try.

The agent suddenly felt very old. He gulped uncomfortably. "Um. Claudia…" Claudia looked at him with eyes that made him feel terrible. All he wanted to do was go catch up on sleep, but he couldn't leave with Claudia looking like that, so he gathered himself with a sigh. He pushed his tired body for one more task. "Listen, I needed you ready for today." Claudia looked at him suspiciously. "Pete and Myka will need research support and I need you ready to go. To ah— cover for me. You- you have to be there for them. You had to be ready for today." He stumbled on what he really wanted to say, but his brain wasn't working quite right.

Claudia considered his words. Leena was satisfied to see the girl's aura start to shift back to her normal perky colors. Claudia gathered herself and shot Artie a slight smile that looked like it took a hundred pound weight off of him.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Uh. I have some things to get done."

"Like sleep." Leena injected.

"Yes, yes. Like sleep." He rubbed his brow as he mentally rearranged his errand list inserting sleep at the top. "Claudia, with you running support, I might be able to run by the bank to open that account for you." Claudia smiled a little at that thought. Artie and Leena had been trying to get Claudia into something of a normal life. Part of that involved getting things that normal people have, things like bank accounts. The banks, for some reason, didn't want to give accounts to people with her kind of history, so Artie had to sign for her.

Claudia grinned outright. Artie was trusting her enough for him to do something other than pace and yell when Pete and Myka were out on a mission.

"If anything comes up, _call me_!" he held her gaze for a second to make sure that she got his point.

"Yes! Absolutely!" She sat up straight at the breakfast table.

Artie looked at her. He figured that could get a few hours of sleep, run to the bank and be back at the warehouse before Myka and Pete landed. He wasn't lying about Claudia running support for Pete and Myka though. He dug into his bag and drew out his copy of the case file. He handed it to Claudia. Her eyes widened in excitement. "Review it." he ordered. "I want you to look at every connection, every lead. Ok?"

"Yeah! Ok. Got it!" Claudia's suspicion of Artie not really meaning what he was saying evaporated when he handed her his case file. He offered her an encouraging look.

After seeing Claudia grin with excitement Artie relaxed and blinked slowly. He was suddenly extremely tired and had to drag his eyelids back open. Claudia saw his struggle.

"Hey. How about you listen to Leena and let me handle the warehouse for a few hours hu?"

Artie smirked at suddenly going from care taker to being taken care of. He nodded his agreement. "Yeah." Leena had dealt with Artie working through the nights before and they settled into their practiced routines. She held open the kitchen door for him. As he stumbled through it he let her take the bag out of his hands. She put the bag on the table at the foot of the stairs as he wearily climbed up to his room. "Try to take off your shoes this time." She called after him.


End file.
